The Bleeding Forest
by The Snow Mage
Summary: What is a team of hunters-in-training to do when their grades have sunk to the bottom? If they attend Beacon Academy, they get sent out on one last mission: acquiring long lost artifacts. This leads Team PLKA to the Bleeding Forest, populated entirely by ash-grey trees that bleed red sap. Oh, and Grimm, and the man wearing White Fang regalia who seems to be taming them. Good luck.
1. Chapter 1

Hello, everyone. This is a story about a team, but not the team you are used to. Team PLKA (yes, Team Polka) is formed entirely of OCs, and will be four of the five characters you will see in this fanfiction. If you don't count the Grimm, of course.

Despite having Jaune, the canon has a serious disparity of characters about to flunk out of Beacon, which is a trope that I have noticed in at least one of the shows/fiction series that I have seen/read (despite not being able to remember any at this point in time, so I hope I'm not making that up). It seemed odd to me, but that got me thinking: what would Beacon Academy do to a team that is on the verge of failing?

Well, I figured that the team would likely have to do some bizarrely impossible task, like preserve a Grimm beyond its death or collect a few long lost artifacts. As this story is rated T, you can probably guess which of those I decided to use.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with RWBY or Rooster Teeth in any capacity (though I'd very much like to be).

Also: I'm going to try to put out at least one chapter of this every two weeks, but I make no promises that I can hold to that standard. My laptop is on the edge of death, and I probably won't be able to replace it for another month or two.

I hope you enjoy!

XxxXxxXxxXxxX

The Bleeding Forest. It was always an oddity, even in a world like Remnant, as it was composed entirely of Heartless Trees, which have bark the color of ashes and black leaves that are sharp enough to cut through skin. But the trees in the Bleeding Forest have yet another oddity: a sweet smelling crimson sap that has been shown to have iron, copper, and zinc in it. Where they get these metals from is a mystery, but researchers theorize that it might have something to do with the oddly high number of Grimm that dwell within.

Despite the strangeness of the Bleeding Forest, it was often a rather quiet, peaceful place. On this day, however, the peace was broken by an airship's circulating propellers, the insignia of two crossed axes resting over a circle and a pair of leafy plants marking it as belonging to Beacon Academy. As it approached the forest, it descended, the air pushed down by its propellers flattening the grass and flinging leaves, dirt, and small rocks away from it. Four people, all of them teenagers, jumped off of it once it got low enough, landing against the ground with thuds that were mostly muted by the sound of the airship that began ascending and turning once they had landed. The four watched it leave, waiting until it could no longer be heard before they turned to face each other.

The first to speak was a young woman, her shoulder-length black hair holding three interlocking white lines dyed into the left side. Her eyes were grey, and her clothes were an affair in black and white: a white high-collared overcoat that falls to just over her knees and white leather boots that rise to just under her knees, matched with a black blouse and a black knee-length skirt. Her emblem, proudly displayed on the grey cloth wrapped around her right arm, was of a white cross was a black X beneath it. Her weapon, a flamberge worn on her back, was nearly as large as she was tall, resting just an inch beneath her full height of 5'3". "Equipment check," she said, her voice firm. Pulling a folded paper out of her pocket, she added, "Map: check. Kaimana?"

"Rations," the tallest of the group said, unslinging the bulging backpack he wore and presenting it to the group. "Check." He wore a greatcoat as well, but his was light blue instead of white, and he wore no shirt beneath it, revealing his muscular chest; the left sleeve was also missing, granting his cybernetic arm a greater range of movement and preventing it from snagging on any cloth. His trousers were a dark shade of blue, and he tucked them into his brown boots. His skin and eyes were rich shades of brown, his eyes a much lighter shade than his skin, and his short hair was black. His own emblem was worn on the right breast of his jacket, and was a silver gear on a field of dark blue.

The first woman nodded in satisfaction, then turned to the next young man in the group. "Phoenix?" she asked, making him swallow nervously.

"Right," he said, pulling his own backpack off and opening it. "Compass, check. Cookware, check. Canteens, check." His robes were a vibrant red, and crossed with interlocking chains of black flame, the hood raised over his head to hide his long blonde hair and green eyes. His black boots and orange gloves were the only parts of him not covered by the robe, other than his face, and each bore his emblem, a black musical note surrounded by red flame. Carried in a small leather sling on his hip was a violin and its bow. "Why'd you give me all the C items, Angelica?"

"All the miscellaneous went to you," the first woman said with a shrug. Turning to the last member of the group, she asked, "Lata?"

"Radio, check," the woman said, rolling her dark brown eyes as she patted the radio clipped onto her thick belt. It wasn't the only thing on her belt, however; four brown leather pouches were also clipped to it. Her own jacket, a dark green, was short, not even covering her stomach; she let her light brown blouse do that, instead. She also wore a pair of dark brown bell-bottom pants, a pair of brown boots, and her light green chullo hid all but one lock of her red hair and displayed her emblem, a quartet of dark green vines stretched over a blue cross. "Can we move on now?", she asked, crossing her arms as best as she could with the pair of slender shields she wore strapped to them.

"Not until you check the radio's battery," Angelica said.

Lata let out a deep sigh, pulling the radio off of her belt, flipping a switch, and clicking the button on its side, expecting a brief burst of static that never came. She blinked, surprised, and checked the switch, noting that she had turned the radio off. She flipped it again, then clicked in the button again, but there was still no static. "Well, its dead," Lata said, clipping it back onto her belt.

"Fantastic," Angelica said, her voice practically dripping with sarcasm and barely controlled anger. "It's not like this is our last chance to pull our grades up or anything. No, this is just perfect! We don't have a way to call in a way home even if we can finish!" Angelica's voice kept rising as she spoke, and she was practically screaming by the end.

"It probably died after the last dozen times you made me check it," Lata said, her own voice filling with anger. "In a way, this is your fault."

"Did you forget to turn it off after the check, again?" Angelica asked, just barely managing to control herself.

"Guys, you might want to be a bit quieter," Phoenix said meekly, nervously fingering his bow.

"He's right," Kaimana said gruffly. "Calm down."

"No, I will not!" Lata shouted, glaring at each member of her team in turn. "I'm the only one of us with a decent grade, yet I'm being tied to you slackers and forced to do this extracuricular nonsense!"

"Lata, we are a team," Angelica growled. "If you don't like that, maybe you should have helped us instead of complaining so much!"

Kaimana turned his gaze to the trees as Lata's eyes widened and she took a deep breath. "Incoming!" he shouted, watching several large, black-furred Grimm charge at them. He raised his cybernetic arm, the hand flipping up on a hinge to expose a nearly inch-wide tube; a small sphere launched from it with a shrill bang, colliding with one of the wolf-like Beowolves and ripping it nearly in half. The Grimm began dissolving nearly immediately, but its fellows charged on heedless of its fellow being killed.

The Beowolf Grimm were a very typical type of Grimm, one of the most commonly seen. They were most easily described as humanoid wolves, though that would fail to take into account the white plates of bone-like armor that were as much a part of their bodies as their eerily black fur. They typically formed a pack around an alpha, which was not always another Beowolf; when it was, though, that Beowolf was almost always the biggest and strongest of the bunch, and was extremely likely to be old enough that its armor plating had begun to form spikes.

The Grimm assaulting Team PLKA were not all Beowolves, however; there were also a few Creeps. Creeps were an odd sort of Grimm, their reptilian shaped heads being covered in black scales and the bone-like armor that was present on all Grimm, their bipedal forms lacking arms or wings of any sort. They were hunched over like birds, and their lack of wings didn't stop them from practically flying across the ground, propelled by their short, avian legs.

Kaimana's attack was all that was needed to rally the team, the four of them quickly flinging themselves into the fight. Kaimana flicked his arm to swing his hand back into place, then slammed his cybernetic fist into the head of one of the Beowolves, smashing right through and killing it instantly.

Phoenix let out a war cry, his eyes burning with rage as he drew his violin's bow, wielding it like a sword as a Beowolf charged at him. The Grimm swung its clawed paw at Phoenix, but he ducked, taking its arm off with a single slice of his bow. Another swift swing took off the Beowolf's head, and he turned to face the next one, which was already taking a swing at him.

Lata fell into a defensive crouch, pointing the points of her shields at the horde of Grimm and clenching her fists around a pair of levers. The sub-machine guns that had long ago been worked into her shields fired, slowing and in some cases crippling the Grimm. When a Creep managed to get too close to her, she chopped her arm at it, her shield slicing cleanly through its legs and leaving it unable to move.

Angelica's hand rested on her sword's hilt until one of the Grimm, a massive Beowolf, got close to her. She spun on her heel, drawing her sword as she went, and brought it down on the Beowolf, pulling one of the flamberge's two triggers. A powerful gale of wind fired out from the rear-facing barrel hidden in the guard, adding enough momentum to her swing to cleave straight through the the Beowolf's armored shoulder and the bulk of its body. Angelica barely kept her blade from slamming into the ground, but kept the werewithal to leap away from the second Grimm to attack her.

The team cleaved their way through the tide of Grimm, advancing inches at a time towards the Bleeding Forest, when a massive roar grabbed their attention. A vast black shape rose from the forest, its black feathers swallowing the sunlight as it roared again, its beak opening wider than one would think it should be able to. It flapped its massive wings towards the team of huntsmen-in-training, and its feathers flew from its wings, each screaming with the force they had been flung.

"Nevermore!" Angelica shouted, worry in her voice as the Grimm's gigantic feathers were launched at them. "Use the forest as cover!" she added, jumping backwards from her fight with a Beowolf and then springboarding off the top of a Creep's head to propel herself towards the forest. She swung her blade in a wide arc as she jumped, cutting through a Beowolf that would have blocked her path.

Phoenix cut down a Beowolf that was getting too close to him, then drew his violin, holding it by the neck and pointing it at the ground. He jumped, then pulled the trigger hidden in the violin's neck, firing the gun that protruded from it and giving him enough extra momentum to extend his leap. He easily cleared the Grimm closest to him and jumped again, making sure to aim his shots at any Grimm that were beneath him.

Kaimana's plan was different; instead of going over the Grimm, he'd just go through. A pair of metal plates extended from his cybernetic arm, and he raised it in front of him like a shield as he charged. When he was less that a meter away from the horde, Kaimana drew his Aura through the Dust lining the grooves and channels in the plates, spilling flame from his makeshift shield as he hammered the Beowolf to the side.

Lata jumped, narrowly avoiding a Beowolf's claws, then hammered a kick into its head as she extended her hand to the tree line. A green nimbus of light surrounded her hand as she activated her Semblance, flowing its energy into one of the seeds that was stored in her shield; the seed grew alarmingly fast into a vine that quickly closed the distance to the trees, wrapping around one of the ash-grey trunks as the tip grew into a massive bulb. The vine was not typical ivy, nor was it even native to Vale; it was known as Dragon's Stomach to the people of Mistral, and it possessed an odd elasticity and a very sticky sap that it typically used to pull prey into its carnivorous bulb. Lata tugged on her end of the vine, and the plant did the rest, pulling her across the open field and toward the forest.

As the four of them advanced towards the forest, the Nevermore's launched feathers met them; most of the feathers missed completely, and what few came close were avoided by the huntsmen-in-training. Team PLKA ran and dodged their way into the forest, and then scattered, each of them heading off in a different direction.

XxxXxxXxxXxxX

Lata swore under her breath as she looked down from her position atop one of the Heartless Trees, trying to keep her panting breaths from being too loud lest they draw the attention of the pair of Beowolves beneath her. She had been running and fighting for nearly four hours since Team PLKA had separated, and she had yet to find any of the others.

Worst of all, however, was that she had not found enough time to prepare her medication, an herbal elixir of her own invention. She suffered from an offshoot of Borderline Personality Disorder, one that magnified her emotions practically tenfold and made keeping calm a practice in futility; that was the only symptom of her disorder, however, which was considered a small miracle by the various doctors that had tried to find a treatment or cure for her over the course of her life, as the sheer intensity of her specific disorder combined with the usual symptoms would have guaranteed her a place in a mental institution, at the very least.

Once Lata had caught her breath, she pulled a small canister out of one of the pouches she wore, shook it vigorously, then slowly opened it, all the while keeping an eye on the Grimm beneath her. When Lata drank the concoction stored within, her lips puckered and her frown turned into a grimace, and she lowered the canister with a small sound of disgust, tucking it back into the pouch she pulled it from.

She took a deep breath, licking her lips and wishing she had something to wash the taste of herbal medicine out of her mouth, then dropped from the tree, decapitating the two Beowolves beneath it with a pair of quick slices from her shields as she fell.

"Lata," a rough voice said from behind her, and Lata spun around to see Kaimana, the tall man's eyes darting around to see if anything was after them.

"Kai," Lata said softly, relief clear in her voice. "It's great to see a friendly face again."

Kaimana's only response was a grunt, but Lata had grown somewhat used to that over their time as teammates. Kaimana jerked his head over his shoulder, then turned, which Lata took as a gesture to follow him.

"Do you know where Phoenix and Angie are?" Lata asked, worry quickly seeping back into her voice. When Kaimana shook his head in response, Lata let out a sigh, but she began walking behind him all the same once he started moving. "Then where are we going?"

"Cave," Kaimana said. "Angelica can find us with her Semblance. Make a shelter, fortify it; base of operations."

"Good thinking, Kai," Lata said. Her emotions, still in turmoil, were slowly starting to settle as her medication began to kick in.

The two of them walked a short distance to a cave, which Kaimana had already scouted out and found to be free of Grimm. It was larger than Lata had expected, being more than a simple hole in some hill; it went nearly forty feet deep into a rather large cliffside, and had a number of small branches, one of which also opened out onto the cliffside, albeit a full twenty feet above ground level. The main entrance to the cave was rather exposed, as it jutted out into a clearing that had primarily rocky ground where little could grow, but the hole in the cliffside faced one of the thickest parts of the forest. More than a few of the branches had quite a bit of rubble in them, most likely from a cave-in.

"Great find, Kai," Lata said, nodding her head.

"You took your medicine?" Kaimana asked, making Lata wince.

"Yeah," Lata said, her voice quiet. "I should apologize to Angie, shouldn't I?"

Kaimana's only response was a grunt as he strode into the cave, unslinging his backpack and dropping it onto a slab of stone that looked to Lata like it had been recently moved.

"You've been redecorating?" Lata asked, a slight teasing quality entering her voice as Kaimana sat down on the ground, folding his legs beneath him. When Kaimana held out his hand expectantly, Lata blinked in confusion. "What?"

"Radio," Kaimana said, resting his cybernetic arm against a rock that was rose to just above his waist while he was sitting. "I can recharge it."

"Oh, right," Lata said, pulling the radio from her belt and handing it to Kaimana. Lata frowned, then said, "That won't hurt your ability to fight, will it?" At Kaimana's nod, she added, "Then we should probably wait for the others to get here before we do that."

Kaimana looked at her for a moment, then nodded, tossing the radio back to her and standing back up as she fumble to catch it. Kaimana nodded at Lata, then set to moving the rubble from one of the small branches that jutted off from the cave out to the clearing in front of it. After a few minutes, his work began to reveal itself to be a crude wall; once Lata caught onto this, she rooted through one of her pouches for a small cloth packet of seeds, drawing it out and pulling on its drawstrings to open it once she had found it.

Lata carefully set the seeds from the packet along the cracks in the rubble wall as Kaimana built it, occasionally helping him lug more rocks out and place them when she had gotten caught up to where he was. By the time the wall was finished, they had all but emptied two of the cave's branches of rubble and realized that the cave had not been naturally formed, as the rough Dust crystal protruding from one of the branch's rear walls and the pair of ancient skeletons that had been beneath the rubble in the other branch attested to. When they saw the crystallized Dust, Kaimana carefully plucked it from the wall with his cybernetic arm; it was bright green, marking it as Air type Dust, and was barely bigger than Lata's pinky finger. They spent little time on it, and Lata's only remark was "Phoenix will be happy to see this."

Once the wall was completed, it stood nearly five feet tall and had fallen apart once already. Lata stood behind the wall and raised her hands to it, both of them glowing green, as she closed her eyes, concentrating on the seeds that she had delicately placed on it. Her Semblance flowed from her into the seeds, causing them to grow into small, sticky vines protuding long thorns that were slick with the plant's poison; these vines were native to Vacuo, a kingdom that Lata hoped to never have to visit if all of its plants were that vicious.

Lata panted, nearly collapsing from the exertion of using her Semblance to affect that many plants at once. She stumbled back into the cave and sat down, drawing a small canteen of water out of Kaimana's backpack and drinking deeply from it. Lata let out a long sigh once she was done drinking, then raised her head to see Kaimana standing over her.

"Rest," Kaimana said, taking off his coat and tossing it to her. "I'll stand watch."

"Is it that late?" Lata asked as Kaimana turned around, his canine tail whipping back and forth now that it was no longer covered by his coat. She took off her hat as she looked out at the setting sun, revealing the black-furred bat ears coming up through her red hair. "Geez, I didn't realize we'd been working that long."

"Sleep," Kaimana said, sitting down at the entrance to the cave.

"Thanks, Kai," Lata said, folding her teammate's coat into a thick square. Once she had removed her shields, she lay her head down on the makeshift pillow and quickly fell asleep.

XxxXxxXxxXxxX

Phoenix was sitting on a tree's highest branch, staring at the violin he held in his hands as the sun set behind him. "Should I play us one last song, Robin?" he asked himself, his voice barely audible. He switched his gaze to the forest ahead of him; he'd chosen the tallest tree he could find, so he had a great view of the ashen trees and their black leaves. His eyes found what looked like a small building in the forest, and he furrowed his brow as he stood, sliding his violin into the holster on his belt with one hand and keeping his balance by placing the other on the tree. "What is that?" he asked himself, squinting at the blocky shape in the distance.

"Phoenix!" Angelica's voice came in a hiss beneath Phoenix, startling him enough to nearly knock him from the tree. He looked down and saw her standing on a lower branch, her coat and boots helping her blend in with the tree's bark.

"Angelica?" Phoenix asked. He cast one last look at what he was quickly growing sure was a building, then jumped down, landing with a soft thump on the ground. He rose, and saw that Angelica had done the same, a tired smile on her face.

"Took me long enough to get to you," Angelica said, rubbing at one eye. "How long were you running for? Six hours?"

Phoenix blinked at her, then shook his head. "Felt more like seven," he said, wincing as his pain flowed through his legs now that he was standing. "How did you find me?"

"My Semblance, remember?" Angelica asked, making Phoenix blink in surprise. "Don't tell me you forgot?"

Phoenix tilted his head, then blushed as he remembered. "Oh, right. Your Semblance lets you see Dust as light."

"Yeah, and your robes glow like a bonfire," Angelica said. "Do you know where the others are?"

"No," Phoenix said, looking off in the direction he'd seen the building. "I did see something that might help us finish this assignment, though. There's a building or something a few miles that way," Phoenix said, pointing.

"Cool, I'll make a note of it," Angelica said, drawing the map and a pen out of her pockets. She looked over the map intensely for a few moments before putting a small dot on it with her pen and drawing a small line a bit southeast of it, putting a small question mark next to the line. "Got it."

"So, what should we do?" Phoenix asked, causing Angelica to give him a look that made him cower slightly. "Wh-what?"

Angelica sighed, then put her hand on Phoenix's shoulder. "You're the team's leader, Phoenix," Angelica said softly. "This whole thing we're doing out here is meant to sort out our team's problems, right? Then you've got to get used to calling the shots if we're gonna stay at Beacon."

"I... I'm sorry," Phoenix said, his voice quiet, as he cast his eyes to the ground. "I'll get better, I swear."

"Then, what should we do?" Angelica asked, repeating Phoenix's question from earlier.

"I... I think we should hole up for the night," Phoenix said after a moment. "Wait for dawn to come so we can be a bit better rested when we look for them."

"Good call," Angelica said, a small smile on her face. "It's what I was thinking."

Phoenix straightened up slightly, giving Angelica a timid smile. "Any ideas on where?"

Angelica shook her head, then paused. "That building you saw might be good enough if it's free of Grimm," Angelica said, her eyes shining bright white with her Semblance as she looked in that direction. Her Semblance, which her teacher's at Signal had called Litany, let her see Dust as a substance that emitted light; the color of the light varied depending on the type of Dust, and the strength of the light depended on just how much of it there was. Angelica put a hand between her eyes and Phoenix, as the Dust sewn into his robe shone with a powerful brilliance to her Litany. "I'm not seeing any Dust in that direction quite yet," Angelica said after a moment of examination, the light fading from her eyes. "But we are a ways away. I might be out of range or something."

"Alright, let's go,' Phoenix said, breaking off in that direction at a fast jog despite the pain in his legs. Angelica followed him easily, her shorter stride keeping up with the taller man due to his slight limp.

It took them around fifteen minutes to cover the distance between them and the building Phoenix had seen. It's exterior had once been painted white, but time, decay, and presumably violence had turned it grey and coated it in brown splotches. The building was a watchtower, and stood guard at the front of a whole city that had been engulfed by the forest; much of the city had been decayed by time and turned into rotting wood and crumbling stone, but here and there walls stood in testament to the city that had once stood.

"Wow," Angelica said, swallowing nervously as her eyes glowed white with her Semblance. "What happened here?" she asked as she pulled the map out of her pocket.

"How long has this been here?" Phoenix asked quietly, his eyes darting around.

"This wasn't on the map," Angelica said, drawing a pair of lines on the map and writing 'CITY?' next to them. "Professor Oobleck will want to hear about this."

"The tower looks mostly intact," Phoenix said, turning his eyes to the four-story pillar that had first attracted his attention. "Do you think we should use it as our base?"

"Sounds good," Angelica said, putting the map away. "We should scout it out first, though. Make sure there isn't a Creep or something hiding in a closet."

Phoenix felt his anger stir at the mention of a Grimm, and he drew his violin's bow, looking over the bladed edge to see if it was still sharp enough. "Let's go," Phoenix all but growled out, startling Angelica a bit as he moved quickly and quietly to the tower's entrance.

The rotten remains of a wooden door lay on the ground in front of and partially inside of a large hole in the tower, the rusted hinges on one side revealing that it had originally been a doorway before someone or something had bashed through it. The interior of the tower was in better shape than most of the buildings that Angelica and Phoenix had seen so far, still standing strong despite a pair of chunks of stone missing from the topmost level.

"The door looks like it was blown outwards," Angelica muttered to herself, measuring the wood with her eyes as she examined the stonework around it. After a moment, she shook her head, then hurried to catch up to Phoenix, who was checking every nook and cranny for potential Grimm. The first floor was clear, as were the second and third, but they couldn't get to the fourth floor or the open-air guard post that rested atop it; the stone stairs looked to have been melted by something hot enough to treat them like they were made of wax.

"Well, we know it's clear," Phoenix said once they had finished their search. They had decided to rest on the second floor, as the first was too exposed and the third contained an abundance of rotting wood and moldy cloth.

"I'll take first watch," Angelica said, making Phoenix sigh in relief. "You get some sleep. I'll wake you in four hours."

"Thanks, Angelica," Phoenix said, taking off his backpack to use as a rather uncomfortable pillow. He rested his head against it, falling asleep nearly instantly as Angelica sat down, folding her legs beneath her as she settled in for a very long, very boring shift of guard duty.

XxxXxxXxxXxxX

Soul Eater! That's the anime I was trying to think of at the top of the page!

How'd I do? I hope you enjoyed it. I might have been a bit forward about some of the characters, like I feel like I was when I introduced Lata's disorder, but all in all, I think this went well.

Oh, and for those of you who care: this is probably going to be the shortest chapter of this story. I plan on each chapter encompassing an entire day, and, well, Team PLKA is going to have a very busy week (or so). They have three objectives, of course, and will face a villian, the fifth and final character that this story will possess.

Feel free to leave a comment telling me what you thought, and potential ways I could improve the story or better explain a certain aspect, but please try to leave comments with a bit of use to them; comments that just say "that was cool" are about the same to me as comments that just say "that sucked and you suck".

I mean to keep good on what I said at the top, that bit about trying to put out a chapter every couple of weeks. And hey, now that Volume 3 just started I'll have plenty of inspiration to keep this going!


	2. Chapter 2

Well, I was right about my computer dying. But hey, it's here now! I'll try to not have chapters out so late in the future. I am serious about trying to get at least one chapter out every two weeks; this was just something that's been a long time coming.

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

As the sun began to rise over the Bleeding Forest, Phoenix looked over the black-topped trees from a crack in the crumbling tower. His mind was wandering, but he was glad for the distraction from his steadily growing hunger. As Kaimana was the member of Team PLKA who had their rations, and since Lata was the only person on their team who would be able to tell an edible plant from a rock, Phoenix and Angelica had gone to sleep on empty stomachs.

Phoenix heard movement behind him, and turned around to see Angelica sitting up, blearily rubbing sleep from her eyes. Angelica groaned as she stood, stretching to get the kinks out of her muscles, then said, "Man, I could kill for a cup of coffee right now."

Phoenix snorted, tearing his eyes away from where Angelica's blouse had risen up her body to reveal the tight muscles of her belly. "I'd rather have a few pancakes and some bacon," Phoenix said, staring out at the rising sun again.

Angelica groaned. "Don't remind me," she said, rubbing at her stomach before she realized her state of dishevelment. Angelica quickly straightened out her shirt, tucking it back into her skirt, and picked up her jacket, which she had been using as a pillow. "Did I miss anything?" she asked as she critically examined her coat, brushing dirt and debris off of it when she saw any.

"Nope," Phoenix said. "No Grimm attacks, no flares sent up by Kai or Lata, nothing. You even woke up in time for the sunrise, so I can't even say you missed that."

Angelica snorted as she put on her jacket, relaxing as she felt the comforting familiarity of its weight on her. "Too bad I don't care about them all that much," Angelica said, making Phoenix turn to stare at her quizzically. "Sunrises, I mean."

"Oh," Phoenix said, turning his gaze once more out through the hole in the wall. "I didn't use to like them all that much, but... Robin once told me that they were a symbol of new beginnings to her, of washing the slate clean and starting over. That they were beautiful because they held infinite possibility."

Angelica kept quiet as Phoenix turned his eyes to the ground, his hood covering his face in shadow. "I'm sorry," Phoenix said nearly a minute later, his voice cracking.

"No, I'm sorry," Angelica said, her voice quiet and soothing. "I didn't realize... I'm sorry for bringing this up, Phoenix. I know how much she meant to you." Angelica took the few short steps that separated the two of them and put her hand on Phoenix's shoulder, trying to give him what little comfort she could.

"I'll be fine," Phoenix croaked out, raising his arm to rub at his eyes with his sleeve.

"Should I start looking for the others?" Angelica asked. "I don't want to leave you alone right now, but..."

"No, go ahead," Phoenix said, still looking at the sunrise. "I'll be out in a minute."

"Okay," Angelica said, taking her hand off of his shoulder. "I'm going to be on top of the tower if you need me," she added, picking up her sword in its sheath and strapping it onto her back. After taking one last glance over her shoulder at Phoenix, Angelica climbed the stairs to the third floor of the tower. She poked her head out of a window, which was actually more of a square hole in the side of the tower, and looked around, seeing if she could find a good point to jump from.

After a moment, she saw a long stone brick that jutted precariously out from the tower a few feet above her. Angelica climbed out onto the window, her head ducked low to keep from banging it on the window's stone frame, and jumped to the brick, her hands grasping onto it with ease as she spun around on it, putting her feet beneath her just as she came to be on top of it. Unfortunately for her, all of that momentum had nearly torn the brick from its place, and it started to slip out as she stood; Angelica jumped again just before it fell out, flinging her hands above herself to try to latch onto any handhold she could. Luckily, her jump was just enough to take her to the window of the fourth floor of the tower, and she climbed in carefully, her gaze flicking momentarily to the partially destroyed staircase.

"Well," Angelica said, taking a moment to brush the dust from her clothes. "That was fun."

"Are you okay?" Phoenix asked, calling up to her.

"Yeah!" Angelica said, careful not to make her voice too loud for fear of Grimm finding them. "I'm fine!"

"Okay!" Phoenix said after a moment had gone by. "Just making sure!"

Angelica rolled her eyes, a small smile on her face as she turned to the ascending portion of the staircase. She climbed slowly and silently, being careful not to let her sword tap against the stairs as she kept an eye open for any potential threats.

As Angelica took her first step onto the roof of the tower, she was struck by just how massive the Bleeding Forest truly was. A pair of mountains jutted out into the distant sky, but they were so covered in Heartless Trees that it took Angelica a moment to realize what they were; the horizon itself seemed to be made of a solid wall of trees, which she found faintly unnerving. Taking a deep breath and bracing herself against the chilling wind that blew over the top of the guard tower, Angelica pulled out her map to compare it to the sights she was seeing.

"Let's see," Angelica muttered, glancing between the map and the horizon. "This tower is about fifty or sixty feet tall, so the horizon should be about... six miles away. Those mountains are probably only four or five miles away, though, and the ocean is about a mile that way, so..." Angelica continued to mutter, then smiled and folded the map into a square before putting it back into her pocket.

Emboldened by having a general idea of where she was, Angelica turned to face the city behind her. Heartless Trees rose from the unpaved streets, concealing much of the city from her sight; however, the few buildings that she could see in between the trees were mostly intact, and although some were missing portions of their roofs or walls, that could be easily attributed to age rather than an attack.

Angelica shook her head, turning her mind back to her comrades. "Right," Angelica muttered to herself, turning away from the city and catching sight of the coast before facing the northern section of the forest. "You came up her for a reason." Angelica closed her eyes, took a deep breath, then opened them again as white light began to shine from them. With her Semblance activated, she scanned the forest as quickly as she could; almost instantly, she found three different softly glowing lights shining through the trees. One was less than half a mile away, and was inside the city, although along the outskirts; the second and third were on the mountains in the distance, one being at the base of the taller mountain and the other at the peak of the other.

"Well," Angelica said, sighing again. "At least we have somewhere to start."

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

"Are you sure you saw something over here?" Phoenix asked Angelica as the two of them stood beneath the rocky cliffside of one of the mountains that Angelica had seen. "I mean, it was miles away. Maybe you saw something else?"

"No," Angelica said with a shake of her head. "The glow my Semblance lets me see is very distinctive. It'd be hard to mistake it for something else." She looked around the trees around them, then scanned the cliff. "Get behind me. I'm gonna use it again."

"Oh, um, alright," Phoenix mumbled as he took a few steps backwards towards the tree line. "Go ahead."

Angelica took a deep breath, then opened her eyes, white light softly shining from them as she activated her Semblance again. She glanced to her left, then squinted as she caught sight of Phoenix in her peripheral vision, his robe vomiting a cascade of bright multi-colored light from the Dust powder sewn into it and the Dust crystals kept in small pockets lining the interior. "Ow," Angelica muttered, closing her left eye as she turned to look at her right. She frowned in confusion as she saw a faint green glow coming from the cliff itself. "Over there," she said, temporarily turning off her Semblance to walk over to the spot she'd seen glowing; Phoenix followed cautiously, being careful to not get in Angelica's sight and keeping an eye on the trees in case a Grimm decided to ambush them.

"Is that a wall of rubble?" Phoenix asked, causing Angelica to glance at him before she looked at the wall. The rocks were wet, and the rocks seemed to be held together by some sort of vine. "You ever see that kind of plant before?"

"I don't think so," Angelica said, turning back to the cliff as she shook her head. "Hey, look!" she exclaimed, pointing, as she spotted a cave in the mountain. "Maybe they're in there?"

"I hope so," Phoenix said, one of the chains on his robe lighting up orange-red as he awoke the Dust in it; the glow of the Dust was quickly overwhelmed by the glow coming off of the fist-sized flame that had appeared above his open palm. The flame's light illuminated part of the cavern's interior, revealing a backpack to the pair of huntsmen-in-training.

"That must be Kai's!" Angelica said, a small smile on her face. She strode into the cave, her eyes flicking to the parts that were still unlit. "Well, come on then, Phoenix! They're in here!"

"Okay," Phoenix said meekly, hurrying to follow her. He raised his hand and drew more heavily on the Dust in his robe, causing the flame in his hand to grow in size and intensity. A sudden grunt from one of the still unlit areas of the room caused Phoenix to let out an almost silent squeak, and he darted behind Angelica in an attempt to hide from whatever made that sound. In doing so, his light moved close enough to Kaimana to reveal the tall man.

"Phoenix," Kaimana said, a grin on his face as he sat still, his arms folded over his chest. "Angie."

"Jeez, Kai," Phoenix said, holding a hand over his chest as he panted. "You scared me."

Kaimana's only response was a single chuckle.

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

Phoenix bit into his meal, a still half-wrapped ration bar made from an amalgamation of nutrients, additives, and preservatives that created a completely smooth brown substance. He grimaced as it touched his tongue, and he chewed it carefully as it began to turn from its original chalky consistency to a much stickier paste in his mouth. On the bright side, the bar's taste was enough to subdue his hunger almost entirely and its high calorie content meant that it was essentially a meal.

"I hate these things," Angelica mumbled, unscrewing the cap of her canteen, which had been with everyone else's in Kaimana's backpack. "Are you sure there isn't anything edible in this forest, Lata?"

Lata nodded with a sigh as she eyed the wrapper of the ration bar she'd eaten earlier. "Yep. I've got a few seeds that I could grow, but I don't have a lot of them; we shouldn't use them unless we run out of rations."

Angelica sighed as she stared at her own mostly eaten ration bar. "Oh well," Angelica said, popping the last of it into her mouth with a grimace.

Phoenix swallowed the last of his bar, washed down the flavor by drinking from his canteen, then said, "Did you two find anything that could help us finish up out here?"

Lata shook her head. "No. We basically just holed up here and turned this cave into a safe place to sleep," Lata said.

"Well, we did find something interesting," Angelica said, tossing her ration's paper wrapper into the small fire they were sitting around. "An old city in the middle of the forest. We spent the night in a crumbling guard tower."

"We didn't get a chance to explore it," Phoenix added, "but it could point us in the right direction, maybe."

"There's an abandoned city," Lata said in a deadpan, looking between Phoenix and Angelica. "Do you believe this, Kai?"

Kaimana grunted, nodding.

"Why would we lie about this?" Phoenix asked, confusion and anxiety mixing in his voice.

"To mess with us," Lata answered simply, tucking a lock of her hair beneath her hat. "Ooh, look at those Faunus who believed us that there was a city in the forest. Yeah, right."

"Lata, we're telling the truth," Angelica said, frowning.

"Do you really think of us like that?" Phoenix asked, seeming to shrink in on himself as he tugged on his hood.

Lata let out a sigh, then shook her head. "Sorry. It's hard to get over the things that some of my Human doctors said over the years."

"We've been on this team for weeks, Lata," Angelica said, a slight tremor working its way into her voice. "I don't know what you've gone through, or how hard your life has been, but we've all been a team for weeks now and you still think of us like that!"

"Well, excuse me, Princess!" Lata growled. "I've had to deal with hardship all of my life! Not just being a Faunus, even though that's more than bad enough to most of you Humans, I got saddled with freaking Borderline Personality Disorder! And not even the normal version; mine's unique, which makes it all but untreatable! What have you had to deal with, Angelica!" Lata finished, practically screaming at the end, her lips twisted into a snarl.

"Lata," Kaimana said simply, his eyes intently fixed on the red-haired girl as she turned to look at him. "Medicine?"

Lata swallowed nervously at Kaimana's unreadable expression, then shook her head and drew a small canister out of one of her belt pouches. "Not yet," Lata said, averting her eyes from her team as she shook the canister, mixing the extracts within it.

"I almost lost my brother to a Grimm," Angelica said as Lata raised the canister to her lips, causing Lata to pause. "I was seven years old, and we were playing outside while my parents went to church. If Professor Qrow hadn't happened along when he had, we'd probably both be dead."

Lata lowered her gaze to the floor, her eyes beginning to tear up. "I'm sorry," Lata said, staring into the pale green concoction that she still had yet to drink. "I didn't know."

Angelica sighed, then shook her head. "Now you do," Angelica said quietly.

Phoenix shuddered as a howl echoed into the walls of the cave. "We should go," he said, standing up. Kaimana and Angelica followed his lead nearly instantly, but Lata took a moment to drink her medicine before she stood up as well. "The tower?" Phoenix asked, looking at Angelica.

"It's as good a place as any," Angelica said, drawing her sword from its sheath as more howls and screeches sounded in the distance. "Kai, stay with me; Phoenix, stick with Lata. If we get separated, we'll need to be able to actually get everyone there."

"There's another exit," Lata said, tugging on Phoenix's sleeve. "Let's go."

"Um, o-okay," Phoenix mumbled as Lata dragged him deeper into the cavern, leaving Angelica and Kaimana alone.

"You ready, Kai?" Angelica asked, cracking her neck to the side as she walked out of the cave. Kaimana grunted, following her, his fists raised in a basic defensive stance. "Then let's move out!"

A trio of Grimm ran at the pair of huntsmen-in-training from the trees, one Ursa flanked by a pair of Beowolves. Kaimana's cybernetic hand flipped open as Angelica dashed to meet them, his cannon shot flinging over her shoulder at the Ursa as she cut down one of the Beowolves. The Ursa managed to avoid the cannonball, but it rolled on the ground to do it, granting Angelica the time she needed to block the other Beolwolf's claws and fire the shotgun built into her sword, gouging a fist-sized hole in the Grimm's chest. Angelica finished it off with a decapitating swing of her blade as Kaimana rushed the Ursa, his hand having flipped back down over the cannon and formed into a fist to punch a crater into the bone-plating on its head.

As the Grimm in front of Angelica and Kaimana dissolved, Phoenix and Lata had taken to the treetops, hopping between them using their weapons to help keep balance. Unfortunately for them, the noise they made attracted some unwanted attention.

"Nevermore!" Lata shouted, firing one of the SMGs built into her shields at the massive bird-like Grimm. The bullets bounced off of its feathers with metallic clangs, the Dust-propelled casings have dented into uselessness on contact with the Nevermore.

"Do you have seeds for anything flammable!" Phoenix said. Lata stared at him for a moment, but then her hand ducked into one of her pouches, pulling out a single yellow seed. "Can you attach it to it?"

Lata's eyes flashed with sudden recognition, and she extended her hand at the Nevermore, the seed growing into a long white vine that sprouted a few fruits as it wrapped around the Grimm's beak. "Now!" she shouted, and the Nevermore roared as Phoenix hurled a Dust-created fireball at it, the vine snapping and spraying a sticky sap over the beast's beak and feathers.

The sap ignited instantly on contact with Phoenix's fireball, and green flame flowed across the vine, causing the fruits that it had grown to explode violently, creating white-hot pockets of flame right in front of the Nevermore. Blinded by the sap and flame, it flew into them, screeching as its feathers began to burn off.

"Shoot it now!" Phoenix yelled, and he raised his violin at the bird-like Grimm as Lata pointed the tips of her shields at it, the two of them opening fire as one. The bullets carved into the Nevermore's exposed flesh, flinging chunks of dissolving matter up into the air; before long, the beast had been decapitated, its slowly dissolving head dropping onto the forest below.

"Woohoo!" Lata shouted, pumping her fist in the air. "That was awesome!"

"Good work, Lata," Phoenix said, a small smile on his face. His smile quickly faded when he saw the sheer number of Grimm that had surrounded them. "We need to move, now!" he shouted, firing his violin at a Beowolf that started climbing the tree they were standing in.

"Right," Lata said, sounding somewhat depressed as she jumped from the tree. Phoenix followed her, tossing a cluster of Dust-conjured icicles at the Ursa Major that decided to give chase. Two of the icicles stuck in the bear-like Grimm, slowing it down and causing it to roar loudly enough to make black leaves fall from the trees.

Lata and Phoenix weren't the only ones to get face one of the stronger types of Grimm, however; as they fought the bird-like Nevermore, Angelica and Kaimana stood face to face with a Death Stalker, a massive black arachnid Grimm with a powerful stinger, a pair of strong pincers, and an excess of the Grimm's bone-like armored plating.

"Any ideas?" Angelica asked without looking at Kaimana. After a moment of silence, during which the Death Stalker advanced towards them, Angelica shouted, "Then let's hammer it down!" and charged, ducking under one of the Grimm's pincers at slashing at it with the tip of her flamberge, digging a small trench in its armor. A cannonball slammed into its other pincer, knocking it away from Angelica as the Death Stalker swung it at her, but she needed to retreat anyway as the arachnid Grimm stabbed its stinger at her.

Kaimana pressed his hand against his cybernetic arm, and a small chamber flipped out of its forearm. He pulled a small cylinder out of his pocket, slipped it into the now exposed chamber, and slapped it closed again. When he fired it, a small trail of pink smoke trailed behind it, and the round exploded with a similar pink smoke when it hit the Death Stalker, stunning it momentarily.

"What was that?!" Angelica asked, holding back a laugh.

"Asked Nora about her weapon," Kaimana said gruffly, a slight blush coloring his cheeks. "Didn't mod it enough, apparently."

"Agreed," Angelica said, raising her sword with a grin. "Pink is _so_ not your color," she shouted as she rushed the Grimm, which had recovered from the grenade round. She slashed at its arms, managing to cut most of the way through one before the Grimm slammed its other pincer into her, knocking her away from it and disarming her temporarily. "Gotta get it back," Angelica muttered to herself as she rose, glaring at the Death Stalker and her sword, which was still lodged in its arm.

Angelica ran at it again as Kaimana fired another explosive round at the Death Stalker, dazing it enough for her to grab her sword as pull the secondary trigger, sending a blast of Dust-created air from the rear-facing barrel that was strong enough to cut the rest of the way through the Grimm's arm. It let out a screech of pain and slammed Angelica away again; she had the presence of mind to keep hold of her weapon this time, and managed to land upright next to Kaimana.

Angelica's eyes lit up as she had an idea, and she turned to face Kaimana as he fired his third and last explosive round at the scorpion-like Grimm. "Kai, how hard could you throw me?" Angelica asked as pink smoke obscured the Death Stalker yet again.

"What?" Kaimana asked, loading a regular cannonball into his arm.

"At the Grimm! How fast would I go?!" Angelica asked, her voice becoming frantic as another pained screech rose from the smoke.

Kaimana looked at her, at her sword, then smirked, looking back at the Grimm. "Enough."

"Then let's do it!" Angelica shouted, jumping into the air as the Death Stalker burst through the smoke. Kaimana grabbed her by the leg with his cybernetic arm, then spun in a full circle before throwing her straight at the Grimm. Angelica spun as she flew, and she fired the secondary barrel on her sword multiple times in quick succession, quickly becoming a very deadly projectile. The Death Stalker tried to swat at her again with its pincer, but Angelica's sword cut straight through it and the creature's body, nearly bisecting it as her spin let her cut through the creature's body and most of its tail.

Angelica ended up slamming upside down against an ash-colored tree, her vision spinning and her stomach revolting against what she just did, but she was downright giddy as she saw the Death Stalker begin to dissolve in front of her. Kaimana was next to her in mere moments, gently picking her up, and then running at full speed through the forest with her slung over his shoulder.

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

"It looks like we lost them," Lata said, peeking out through one of the holes in the second story of the ruined guard tower. Team PLKA had returned to the empty city without further incident, aside from another pack of Beowolves and a few Ursai attacking Lata and Phoenix; the two managed to kill off most of them before escaping from the rest.

"Great job, everyone!" Angelica said cheerfully from her seat on a large chunk of rock. She was cradling her side, but her injury wasn't serious; Lata had checked and found that she had merely bruised her back, instead of breaking a rib like Angelica had first thought. "We did some great things so far today, and we've still got a few hours of daylight left to start searching!"

"You need to take it easy, Angelica," Lata said as Angelica began to stand up, walking over to the black-haired girl. "Even small injuries can become a big deal if you aren't careful."

"I'll be fine," Angelica said, brushing off the team's self-appointed medic.

"No, you need to sit back down and rest," Lata said, stepping closer to Angelica until their noses were nearly touching. "Doctor's orders."

"You're not a doctor, Lata," Angelica said, her voice taking on an irritable edge. "And you're not in charge here."

Lata stood looking at Angelica for a moment, then sighed and took a step back. "You're right, but you're not in charge either. Phoenix is."

Phoenix, who had been drinking from his canteen during their argument, nearly choked on his water, small droplets flying from his mouth as he coughed to clear it from his lungs and throat. "Wh-what?" Phoenix asked, his timid green eyes flicking between the two young women nervously.

"Well, Phoenix?" Angelica asked, her voice still harsh. "Who's right?"

Phoenix took a deep, shaky breath, then shook his head. "Neither of you," he said, causing his teammates to stare at him blankly. "Th-the things we're looking fo-for are probably covered in Dust, so we'll most likely need Angelica with us to help find them," Phoenix continued, gaining some confidence as he went. "However, Angelica, you should not be fighting, and if we need to run, Kaimana will need to carry you."

Kaimana grunted, nodding his head in agreement as his teammates looked at him. "He's right," Kaimana said simply.

Angelica shook her head. "I can still fight," she said, taking a long step towards Phoenix and wincing as her legs tugged on her bruised skin. "Ow," Angelica said, clutching her arm tightly to her side. "Okay, I won't charge in like normal, but I'll still shoot if it comes to a fight!" Angelica said firmly, drawing a hesitant nod of acceptance from Phoenix.

"Th-that's fine, Angelica," Phoenix said.

"Good," Angelica said, turning to face the stairs. "Now, are we going or what?"

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

"It's not an old language," Lata said, frowning as she stared at the Dust-covered mural that they had found. Angelica and Phoenix had seen it earlier, but had not had a clue what it was and were searching for their teammates at the time, so they had moved on. A large rock wall stood tall at the northwestern edge of the city, facing the nearby ocean but nearly untouched by the ravages of time. "It's a cipher."

"So, what's it say?" Angelica asked, looking at Lata.

"I don't know," Lata said with a sigh. "Code-breaking isn't exactly one of my strong suits."

"One of mine," Kaimana said, his gruff voice startling Lata. "The Dust shows a pattern."

"But, not everything is covered with Dust," Phoenix said, his eyes looking over the mural. "Only about a third of it is."

"I'm surprised there's any Dust on it at all," Angelica said. "Doesn't it usually rain a lot around here?"

"Might be recent," Kaimana said, frowning as he looked at the dirty streets and half-collapsed buildings around them. "Might not be alone here."

"Let's see," Lata muttered, ignoring her comrades. "If I exclude the letters covered with Fire... no, maybe Air... gah, I can't make sense of this!"

"Ignore the letters without Dust," Kaimana said. "Read left to right, top to bottom; Fire, then Air, then Lightning."

"Um, okay," Lata said, glancing at Kaimana before turning back to the mural.

"Is that the most you've said all day, Kai?" Angelica asked teasingly, causing Kaimana to shrug.

"The ring must be shown the path," Lata mumbled, shaking her head as she read from the mural. "The ring must be shown the path," she repeated, louder this time. "What does that mean?"

"It means we have a lead," Angelica said, grinning. "We're one step closer to finding the Stone Ring. Thank you, whoever did this, for we could have been screwed without your help."

"Didn't we pass by a building with a bunch of maps in it on the way here?" Phoenix asked, drawing a nod from Angelica. "It might be a good idea to go poking around in there, see if we can find another clue or something."

"Oh, I am so looking forward to this," Angelica said, practically bouncing on her heels in anticipation.

"Why?" Lata asked, confused.

"Looking through possibly ancient maps in an abandoned city that's been lost in a Grimm-filled forest for who knows how long? That's more than I've ever hoped for!" Angelica exclaimed, starting to walk down the street to the crumbling ruin of a cartographer's shop. "I love studying these types of old things! It's why Professor Oobleck's class is the only one I've got a passing grade in!"

Phoenix snorted off a laugh as he followed Angelica. "I haven't seen you like this since our first year at Signal," he said, smiling at her.

"You two went to Signal?" Lata asked, a bit irritated. "Why didn't you tell us?"

Phoenix looked at Lata for moment, then shook his head. "Man, we haven't been a great team, have we? We barely know anything about each other."

"Well, we are most likely going to be here for a while," Angelica said, staring up at the clouds in the sky. "Why don't we start sharing our stories around the campfire before we go to sleep at night?"

"Sounds good," Kaimana said, nodding his head.

"I agree," Lata added. "It sounds like it could be fun."

"Well, we'll start tonight, then," Phoenix said as the team came to a stop in front of their destination. Faded brown paint peeled from the standing walls, which there were only three of, and the roof was tilted at a rather unusual angle, though that seemed to be more by design than by the weight of years. A sign lay broken in front of it, the painted words long since muddled by time and rain, though the shape of a rolled up scroll managed to stay at least somewhat coherent through all of it. "For now, let's get to searching."

Angelica let out a high-pitched squeal, dashing into the ruined store almost faster than her team's eyes could follow. She was already sitting on the floor when they stepped through the broken remains of the shop's door, a pair of maps open in front of her, a wide grin on her face as she compared the two of them.

"This whole forest didn't use to exist!" Angelica proclaimed, startling her team. She stood up shakily, wincing with pain, but she was still practically giddy. "Look here!" She held up the two maps. "This one's the one Professor Goodwitch gave us, and this one's the one I just found. The coastline is the same on them, but everything else is so different!"

"Wow, that's... worrying," Phoenix said as his teammates walked passed him into the store, searching for clues. "But we need to stay focused, Angelica."

"Right, right," Angelica said, shaking her head as she folded up both maps and put them into her pocket. "I'm going to keep an eye out for other maps like this, though. Maybe I can piece together when the Bleeding Forest sprang up."

"Found something," Kaimana said, kneeling to inspect the floor behind what little remained of the store's front desk. "Trapdoor."

"What, seriously?" Lata asked, peering at him from behind a decaying wooden bookshelf. "Already?"

Kaimana merely grunted, pulling up the wooden trapdoor to reveal a set of stone stairs descending into the ground. "Stairs. Might be something down there."

"Well, then, let's go take a look!" Angelica said, practically bouncing over to him.

"No, Angelica, you aren't going to go," Lata said, grabbing the collar of Angelica's jacket as she passed by. "You still need to recover, and a trip down a secret staircase is a very bad idea in your condition."

"But, Lata!" Angelica whined, trying to pull away from the taller girl.

"Lata's right," Phoenix said, walking over to Kaimana. "Kai and I will check it out. Angelica, Lata, you two stay up here and keep looking around. There might be other secrets to find."

Angelica sighed, then nodded. "Fine," she muttered dejectedly, turning away from the two young men and walking towards one of the bookshelves.

Phoenix watched her sadly for a moment, then shook his head and turned back to the trapdoor. Kaimana was already going down, the nearly flawless night vision he possessed helping him see even in the almost perfect darkness of the underground staircase; Phoenix, on the other hand, needed to conjure flame to see, one of the chains on his robe lighting up an orange-red as he worked with the Dust sewn into it. The rough, unworked rock of the walls provided an oddly worrying contrast to the smoother stone of the staircase.

As Phoenix and Kaimana descended, they began to notice that it was beginning to grow damp; the further they went, the damper the stairs became, until they were seeing small puddles of water. By the time they finally reached the bottom, their shoes had become soaked from their trek down the oddly long staircase.

The room the stairs had taken them to was nearly empty; the only thing in it was a podium made from a white crystal that glimmered in the light of Phoenix's conjured flame, and resting upon that was a bracer of the same material. The floor had been covered with water nearly a foot and a half deep, however, concealing any possible dangers that the room might have possessed.

"Is that it?" Phoenix asked Kaimana as the two of them stood at the foot of the staircase. "The Stone Ring?"

Kaimana grunted out an affirmation, then stepped towards it, the water slowing his stride. After his second step, the floor shifted beneath his foot and a small click sounded from the stone walls of the room. Kaimana reacted nearly instantly, a soft blue glow snapping into place around him as he jumped back towards the stairs, the water no longer impeding his movement; almost as soon as he moved, panels opened in the side walls and arrows, tipped with a thick purple liquid, shot at where he'd been standing.

"Wh-what was th-that?" Phoenix asked, wide-eyed.

"Trap," Kaimana said in his usual gruff tone, stepping towards the podium again. Phoenix grabbed his shoulder, however, causing him to stop and look back.

"Get back on the staircase," Phoenix said as another one of the stylized chains of fire on his robe beginning to glow, this one a bright, ice-cold blue. Kaimana nodded, climbing up the step that was submerged and standing on the third step up. Phoenix stepped up onto the second, then placed his hand that wasn't holding a fireball onto the water. Mist fell from his palm as the water beneath it froze, the ice creeping along the water until all of the water had been frozen.

"Good call," Kaimana said.

Phoenix took his first step off of the staircase, but his foot slid on the ice and he fell, letting out a panicked yelp as he slid across the floor on his butt. "Ow," Phoenix moaned, trying to stand back up and falling back down. "Okay, I'm not in a good way here," Phoenix said, looking at Kaimana, who was standing on the staircase with a smirk on his face. "Mind helping me?"

Kaimana let out a chuckle, then stepped down from the staircase as well, the ice crunching beneath his feet as he stomped onto it, his weight letting him gain some additional purchase on the slick ice. He grabbed Phoenix's extended hand and pulled the timid team leader to his feet, then kept him from falling as the robed man's feet began to slip again.

"Maybe I should stay off of ice in the future," Phoenix mumbled, blushing and carefully working his way back to the staircase with Kaimana's help. "Don't tell anyone?" Phoenix said, his voice turning the statement into a question. Kaimana smirked and nodded, then let out a chuckle as Phoenix asked, "Wait, does that mean you will or won't?"

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

"I can't believe we already found one," Lata said, holding up the bracer of white crystal and examining it in the light of the fire. Team PLKA had decided to retire early, as their day had been both eventful and fruitful; Lata had even grown a few of the edible seeds she had, citing a need to celebrate when Angelica had asked her why. They had made a soup from the vegetables Lata grew, and served a side of watermelon with it; it wasn't the most fulfilling meal they'd ever eaten, but it sure tasted better than the rations they'd had earlier.

"I don't understand why its called the Stone Ring," Phoenix said, leaning back against the wall as he busied himself with filling their canteens with Dust-conjured water. "Calling it a Crystal Bracelet would make more sense."

"Well, a bracelet is technically a ring, just a big one," Angelica said, looking up from her maps. "And crystal can be considered a type of stone."

"Learn anything interesting?" Kaimana asked Angelica, gesturing at the maps she was holding.

Angelica nodded vigorously, pointing to the older map that they had taken from the cartographer's store. "This city was called August. It presses up right against the coastline, and this map shows a bunch of ports coming off of it, meaning that they were probably a fairly prosperous city for at least a few decades. It can best be described as a half-circle only a few miles wide, so it likely didn't last for centuries; either that or this map was old when August was abandoned."

"It seems a bit confusing to name a city after a month," Lata commented.

"I'm guessing its named August because of the climate," Angelica said. "We're pressing right up against the equator, but even now there are storm clouds outside. This place gets a lot of rain, which is probably why it was named after the end of Summer."

"Say, Angelica," Phoenix said, screwing the cap back onto a canteen he'd finished filling. "Do you mind if I ask why you like this stuff so much? You know, stuff like cartography and archaeology?"

"I've always liked learning about the past," Angelica said, smiling down at her maps. "It reminds me that I'm not the only one here; there have been millions of people who've been through so much, so many heroes and villains and people who just wanted to live their lives in peace. It's part of why I want to become a Huntress; I want to help make people's lives better, and if killing some Grimm is the way to do it, then that's what I'll do."

"Oh, right, we're supposed to talk about ourselves!" Lata exclaimed, gently setting the Stone Ring onto a cloth.

"Yeah, what should we do for that?" Phoenix asked, looking at each member of his team in turn. "Should we just go around the room telling our stories until we get too tired, or... what?"

"That sounds like it'd probably work best," Angelica said. "Should we start with you, oh fearless leader, or should I keep going?"

"I think we should all talk about why we want to become Huntsmen," Lata said. "It's a good place to start, I think."

"Okay," Phoenix said, shifting nervously. "Unless Angelica's not done, I guess I'll go," Phoenix said, looking at the short young woman, who shook her head. "Okay, um, here goes. I come from a family of Huntsmen, so it was pretty much expected of me. You can find Huntsmen in my family going all the way up to the First Huntsmen, including Archibald Hendricks."

"The guy whose staff we're looking for?" Lata asked, drawing a nod from Phoenix. "Wow, what are the odds you'd get this mission?"

"Either really low or really high," Phoenix said. "I don't know Ozpin all that well. Anyway, becoming a Huntsman is something that's just expected for me. I didn't really have a reason for it until..." Phoenix paused, lowering his head to stare at the ground. "Until Robin died."

"Phoenix," Angelica began, but she stopped herself when Phoenix raised his hand.

"No, I need to say this," Phoenix said, his voice cracking. He sniffled for a moment, then said, "Robin was my girlfriend, also from a family of Huntsmen. When she and I both got into Signal, we took it as a sign from fate that we were meant to be together. When we were fourteen, during a field trip back to the mainland, Robin and I decided to go on a picnic to celebrate our second anniversary. We even asked Professor Qrow if it was safe enough for us to go off on our own, and he said yes.

"But it wasn't safe. Before we finished eating, Grimm attacked us. We fought them, but my staff ended up breaking and Robin..." Phoenix let out a shuddering gasp, tears beginning to fall from beneath his hood. "I sent up flare after flare, but Professor Qrow didn't make it to us until after she bled out."

"Oh, god," Lata said, tears welling up in her eyes. "I'm so sorry, Phoenix."

"I made a promise to Robin, after she died," Phoenix choked out, placing a hand on his violin. "I would take up her weapon, Scordatura, and do my part to keep people safe from the Grimm, even if all I could do was give my life for the cause."

"Phoenix," Angelica said softly, standing up and walking over to him. She sat down next to him, gently wrapping her arms around her team leader as he sobbed.

"I'm sorry," Phoenix said, wiping his tears away with his sleeve. All was silent except for his choked sobs until nearly a minute later, when he slowed to a stop and shook his head. "I'm sorry. Can we move on?" he asked, his voice still rough and raw, wiping at his face again

"Sure," Angelica said soothingly, still hugging him. "Lata?"

"Um, al-alright," Lata stammered, still shocked by what she'd learned about Phoenix. "My family doesn't have history hunting, like yours, but, well, I saw it as a way out of the hospital. When I was five years old, I was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, which causes emotional instability, fear of abandonment, suicidal thoughts, and irritability. I was never afraid of being abandoned, though, and I've never once thought about killing myself; it even turned out my emotions aren't even that unstable, I just feel them much more strongly. So, I was shuffled around between doctors, kept in the hospital and costing my parents so much money that they had to take out multiple loans to keep me treated. I wanted out of that life so badly that I started training in secret, learning everything I could about the Huntsmen and how they did the things they can do, while openly studying about plants and medicine in the hopes that I'd find a miracle cure that my doctors just hadn't considered.

"When I discovered my Semblance could grow plants, I was so happy, because I'd found out about a few plant extracts that could treat my disorder. So, I managed to scrounge up some seeds to them and grew them, taking what I needed to make them into extracts and finally sharing what I'd learned with my doctors and parents. I was around thirteen at the time, and wanted to go to a school like Signal, but my parents were still deep in debt, so I got a job as an assistant at the hospital to help them. We only managed to pay it off together last year, and I applied to Beacon as soon as I heard we'd be able to afford it," Lata finished, a small smile on her face. "I hate hospitals, and owe my freedom to my Semblance, so I decided to become a Huntress, to see the world and help keep people safe enough that they never have to be in a hospital for long."

Angelica smiled, relieved, and mouthed "Thank you" at Lata when she noticed Phoenix smiling at the hat-wearing girl.

"Well, that's my story," Lata said. "Kai, what about you?"

Kaimana shrugged. "Grimm took my arm when I was twelve. Was saved by a passing Hunter before it could kill me. Didn't like the prosthetic the hospital gave me, so I built this," he said, tapping his cybernetic arm. "Wanted to keep people safe, so I turned it into a weapon."

"Well," Lata said, smiling at her fellow Faunus, "we never accused you of talking too much. So, Angelica, is there more to your story?"

"Sure," Angelica said, letting go of Phoenix and leaning back against the wall. "I told you my brother was nearly killed by a Grimm, right? He still can't walk right without a cane, but he's apprenticed to a tailor in Beacon. The city, not the school. That church my parents were in... well, I say church, but it was more of a cult, led by a nasty man who was called Caretaker Douglas. He preached that only people who had never sinned in any way could have peace after death, and that anyone who had done anything bad whatsoever would be thrown into what he called "the Flame" after they died to burn for eternity. But Douglas considered everything to be evil, and said that the Grimm were our evils made flesh, and that the Huntsmen were evil for killing them."

"How insane was this guy?" Phoenix asked, anger filling his voice.

"Who knows?" Angelica asked. "As far as I know, everyone left him after my brother got attacked. My parents even changed our last name to Farran to help hide us from him. I hope he's locked up somewhere, even though he never actually hurt anyone. As far as I know, anyway."

Phoenix shook his head. "That man is a monster. Anyone who says that the Grimm should live is either insane or evil."

"I think we can all agree with that," Lata said, standing up. "Well, I think it's time for us to get some sleep. I'll take first watch; Kai, you fine for second?"

Kaimana grunted his affirmative.

"I'll take third," Phoenix said, laying down on the floor. "I'll be up for the sunrise anyway."

Lata tossed a quick look at Angelica, who nodded sadly, then said, "Alright. Get some sleep, guys. Kai, I'll wake you up in a few hours."

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

Well, I'm sorry this took so long to get to you. Like I said earlier, my computer did die, so I needed to wait a week for this new one to be shipped here.

Anyway, I think I did a good job getting my characters' backstories to you, and of introducing some of the tasks that they'll be doing in the next chapters. So I'm happy with where I'm leaving this.

Until next time!


	3. Chapter 3

I realized recently that I've been using "Hunters" instead of "Huntsmen". Don't worry; I plan on correcting it when I upload this chapter, so it should be fixed already if you're reading this. As to what's to blame, well, I _have_ been watching a lot of Supernatural recently...

Also, I'm sorry this chapter came up late. I'd like to say that I got floored at the last second by a cold, but, truthfully, that happened a good few days after the last second. But, hey, at least one good thing came from it: advice. You shouldn't mix Mucinex with a decongestant unless you don't plan on doing any thinking that day; it really fuzzes you out.

Anyway, enjoy the new chapter!

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

Kaimana stood at the edge of the room that he and his team were in, his real arm braced against the wall as he looked out the holes in the side of the stone tower. His cybernetic arm was in use, as the radio that Lata had given him was hooked up to it to recharge the radio's battery; he'd be much weaker if it came to a fight, but the only way they could leave the forest once they were finished was to call up their airship's pilot, and they couldn't do that without their radio.

Kaimana sighed, glancing behind him to see his team laying down on the second floor of the guard tower, a small pile of ash and burnt sticks all that remained of their campfire. He took a moment to look at each of their faces, trying to see if he could guess what they were dreaming, but finally shook his head and turned back to look out at the forest. He shivered as the trees came back into his vision, their pale trunks and black leaves gleaming in the moonlight, but then stilled as he thought he saw movement at the edge of the treeline.

At first, he thought it was just a trick of the light, but when the Ursa Major's bony plates and spikes caught the moonlight and it raised its head to look at the tower, Kaimana sighed and turned back to his team. He cleared the distance between them in a few quick steps, kneeling quickly to shake Angelica awake.

"Nnh..." Angelica grunted, shoving Kaimana's arm away. "What? Kai?" she said, sitting up when Kaimana turned away from her to shake the rest of his team awake. "What's going on?"

"Grimm," Kaimana grunted as he shook Lata awake. "Found us."

"Oh," Angelica said, blinking sleep from her eyes as she stood up, holding onto her greatcoat, which she'd been using as a blanket, as she rose. Once she'd put it on, she stooped to grab up her sword, and buckled it onto her back while Kaimana told Lata what he'd told her.

"Ugh," Lata moaned as she got up, reaching for her chullo almost instinctively. She plopped it on her head, covering the bat-like ears atop that separated her hair, then donned her jacket and her twin shields. "Great. How long has it been since I went to sleep?" Lata asked, adjusting her hat.

"Couple hours," Kaimana said as he woke up Phoenix.

Phoenix let out a yawn, then sat up, rolling his shoulders. "Time for my watch?" he asked, rubbing at one of his eyes. Kaimana shook his head, and Phoenix looked around, frowning once he saw Angelica and Lata on their feet. "What's going on?"

"Grimm," Kaimana said, standing back up. "Found us."

Phoenix stood up, then grabbed Scordatura and flipped the hood of his robe over his head. "Got it," he said, slipping the violin into the small flap sewn into his robe. "How long do we have?"

Almost as if it was answering him, a Grimm howled from the bottom of the tower, its cry echoed by at least three others.

"Great," Phoenix said, his violin's bow. "Should we go to the cave?"

"I can't think of anywhere else we can go," Lata said around a yawn.

"Looks like we're going to the cave, then," Phoenix said, shaking his head. "Any objections?"

No one spoke, and they moved, going up the stairs to get away from the approaching Grimm. Angelica was last, her sword held in her hands, and she saw the Ursa Major barreling up the staircase. So, she did what any self-respecting Huntress would do: she shot it, the shotgun blast coming from the somewhat hidden barrel worked into her weapon's guard. The blast took the Ursa in the leg, ripping through it like it was paper and dropping the Grimm with a heavy thud; in fact, the Grimm was heavy enough that it actually fell through the staircase, landing headfirst on the first floor of the guard tower.

A much louder roar shook the tower, making Angelica stumble as she turned back to the stairs her team was going up, and then it shook even more as something large slammed itself against the walls. Angelica bit off a mumbled curse and sped up, taking the steps two at a time; however, her team was already fighting the King Taijitu, firing their weapons at the massive serpentine Grimm that was wrapping itself around the tower. Well, except for one.

"Kai!" Phoenix shouted as the Grimm's black head snapped at him, forcing the robed huntsman-in-training to jump away from the newly destroyed wall. "Why aren't you shooting?!"

"Arm's in low-power mode," Kaimana growled, slamming his cybernetic fist into the serpentine Grimm's other head and knocking it away from Lata. "Radio's charged, but the cannon can't be used for a while."

Lata shouted in frustration, reaching into one of her pouches. "Our bullets aren't working!" she yelled, whipping a pair of quickly growing seeds at the King Taijitu's white head; the seeds turned into long, thick vines, and their momentum let them wrap around the Grimm's mouth, sealing it shut at least for the time being.

"Then let's try this!" Phoenix shouted, thrusting his arms toward the massive, two-headed serpent as most of the chains on his robe began to glow green. Wind flowed from his hands, and a gale that could have rivaled a hurricane rammed the Grimm, snapping its heads upwards even before the debris the wind picked up, mostly stone from the destroyed sections of the guard tower, shot through it.

The heads of the Grimm fell to the ground and began to dissolve as it died, but, unfortunately for Team PLKA, its body was too tightly wrapped around the tower; the heads dropping tugged on the beast's body, pulling the tower down towards the ruined buildings of August.

"Run!" Phoenix shouted, turning around as the tower began to droop and dashing towards the open section on the other side, his companions close behind him.

As they ran past the staircase, Angelica ran up it, nearly colliding with Kaimana. Fortunately for her, he had the presence of mind to pick her up, holding her in one arm as he, Phoenix, and Lata jumped out of the falling tower. They landed safely, each of them putting one hand and both feet on the ground as their Auras soaked up the impact, but the tremor from the tower hitting the ground knocked them all off their feet.

"What just happened?" Angelica asked, disentangling herself from Kaimana.

"A King Taijitu took the tower down," Phoenix said, checking to make sure his violin was okay as he stood up. "We jumped out."

A loud roar made Phoenix jump, and the team turned to see a trio of Nevermores approaching from the mountains, in addition to a rather large amount of Beowolves and Ursai that were sprinting at them along the ground.

"This looks bad," Lata said, blinking rapidly in an attempt to keep herself awake.

"We might need to kill the Nevermores no matter what we do," Angelica said, lifting her sword and taking a few shots at the horde of land-based Grimm.

"Alright," Phoenix said, glaring at the bird-like Grimm as the chains on his robe began to glow again. "Keep the others off me and I'll take them out."

"How?!" Lata asked, shooting the sub-machine guns built into her shields at the Grimm coming from the forest.

"The tower," Phoenix said simply, turning to face the fallen guard tower. He swept a hand towards it, and an all-but invisible column of wind launched several stone bricks up into the air and kept them there. He turned, twisting his arm over his head in an overhand chop as he faced the Nevermores again, and the stones shot towards them. The rough stone ripped through the Grimm where it hit them, killing two outright and taking a wing off of the third, sending it tumbling to the ground and crushing several trees and smaller Grimm with its body.

Kaimana, with his arm's cannon non-operational for at least a few hours, could only wait as his teammates shot down the ever-advancing horde of Grimm. He stood at the ready, watching almost impassively as they approached.

"Phoenix, give us a hand with this batch!" Angelica shouted as she kept shooting at the Grimm, her shotgun blasts only taking a Grimm out every other shot.

"Got it," Phoenix said, the chains on his robe losing their green glow as a single chain began glowing red. Flame filled his palm, and he hurled it like a softball at the advancing Grimm; a few of the Grimm that Lata and Angelica had wounded died in the flame, but the rest just kept charging.

'Finally,' Kaimana thought as one of the Grimm, a Beowolf, got close enough for him to fight. He caved its head in with a single swing of his cybernetic arm, then jumped towards the Ursa that had been behind it, backhanding its clawed paw with his real arm and driving his cybernetic into the bear-like Grimm's gut, knocking it back several feet.

"Phoenix!" Angelica shouted as she was forced to stop shooting and start swinging by a particularly large Beowolf. "Retreat or fight?!"

Phoenix took a deep breath, drawing out his violin. "We fight!" he yelled, starting to play an aggressive, hateful song on Scordatura. As he played, red light began to weep from him, strings of it flashing out and attaching themselves to his comrades, invigorating them, making them stronger and faster than before.

Although most Semblances are unique to the individuals they come from, some are inherited, such as the Schnee's Glyphs. Phoenix's Semblance, Rally, is the same way, drawn straight from Archibald Hendricks; it allows one to pass his Aura on to another, letting them fight harder for longer.

Lata slashed through a pair of Ursai with her shields, then turned her SMGs on a cluster of Beowolves, killing the lot of them within moments; blades of white energy flew from Angelica's flamberge as she fought, carving through her targets as easily as her sword; and Kaimana punches became strong enough to kill multiple Grimm with a single swing, bright blue energy echoing off of his fists.

Alas, since using a Semblance was tiring on top of Rally actively using his Aura, Phoenix was forced to stop playing less than a minute after he started, sweat dripping from his face and hands as he panted. However, that minute was enough, as his teammates had used their enhanced abilities to kill off more than two-thirds of the horde of Grimm. Dissolving bodies of the fallen beasts lay between Team PLKA and the tree line, but the rest kept coming.

Another minute passed before Angelica slammed her sword through the last Beowolf, sweat dripping from her forehead and her breath coming in short pants. The bisected Grimm fell to the ground, already starting to dissolve.

"Anyone injured?" Lata asked, tiredly lifting her head. She was leaning on Kaimana for balance, as the adrenaline was starting to wear off and her exhaustion made itself known.

"No, but we should head out before more Grimm show up," Angelica said, sheathing her sword and pulling out her canteen.

"I agree," Phoenix said, wiping a hand across his forehead. "But I don't know if we can make it to the cave from here, as tired as we are."

Kaimana grunted, turning his head to look at the crumbling city of August behind them. "Any port in a storm," he said, wrapping an arm around Lata's shoulders to help steady her.

It took Phoenix a moment to understand him, looking between Kaimana and the city, but he nodded once he realized what Kaimana was talking about. "Good call, Kai," Phoenix said, placing his violin back into the flap on his robe.

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

After finally finding a safe enough place to sleep, which ended up being a old-fashioned bank vault, they fell back into their watch cycles, with Angelica taking the first one (which Lata was unable to complain about, as she fell asleep while they were still looking) and Phoenix's watch starting only an hour before dawn. Now as rested as they were likely to get, the team sat down as they ate their breakfast of ration bars and Dust-conjured water, and began to plan for their day.

"Do we have any leads on the other two artifacts?" Lata asked, shaking a canister full of her herbal medicine.

"Well, it's not so much a lead as a guess, but one of the mountains has a lot of Dust on its peak," Angelica said. "The staff could be there."

"If the statue's likely to be anywhere, it's on one of the mountains or in August," Phoenix said, tossing the paper wrapper of his ration to one side as he crammed the rest of it in his mouth. He had taken off his robe for the time being, revealing the white tank top and pair of red trousers he wore beneath it. "But, we know something's on one of the mountains."

"Looking for the statue could take a while if its here," Lata pointed out, then yawned. "Sorry. Anyways, we might as well secure whatever it is on the mountain."

"Didn't get enough sleep?" Angelica asked.

"I'll be fine," Lata said, shaking her head. "Wish I'd had an extra couple of hours, but it's not a big deal right now."

"If you want to get some extra sleep, we could stay here for an extra hour or two," Phoenix said, pulling a needle, a spool of thread, a thin pair of tweezers, and a pair of metal vials out of one of his robe's inner pockets. "I used up all of my Wind Dust earlier, so I need to replace some of the stitching on my robe with fresh Dust."

"Reminds me," Kaimana said, pulling a green Dust crystal out of his backpack and tossing it to Phoenix. "Found this two days ago, in the cave."

"Thanks!" Phoenix said, nodding at Kaimana. "I was thinking I'd have to use Fire or Lightning instead, but this is much better!"

"So, what's the plan?" Angelica asked, her fingers tapping along the flat of her sword, which lay across her lap.

"You and Kaimana do some searching around August for the statue," Phoenix began. "Lata will sleep, and I'll work on what I can here. When you come back, we'll let you rest a bit before we head out to the mountain. Is that fine?" Phoenix asked, a blush lighting on his face as if he only just remembered his timidity.

Angelica smiled and snorted off a laugh. "More than fine," Angelica said, standing up and buckling her sheath across her back. As she slid her sword into its sheath, she added, "Your arm ready for a fight, Kai?"

Kaimana nodded as he stood, unhooking the radio from one of the belt loops of his trousers. "Lata," he said, tossing it to her. "Full charge."

"Thanks, Kai," Lata said, yawning again as she clipped it onto her own belt.

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

Angelica sighed, standing back up and shaking her head; she had been looking underneath an upturned table in a tavern that was in surprisingly good condition, and she had found nothing. "Why did the blasted thing have to be six inches tall?" Angelica muttered to herself as she glanced over at Kaimana, who was looking behind the bar to see if there was anything there.

"Shipping manifest," Kaimana said gruffly, holding up a small plastic binder full of partially decayed papers. "Beer, whiskey, bar stools: all from Gull's Path."

"Good find," Angelica said, trying to hide the annoyance she was feeling and sounding tired as a result. She pulled out the map she'd looted from the cartographer's shop, unfolding it as she said "We might be able to find something there about the statue."

Kaimana grunted, glancing in the direction of the bank as the two of them climbed the few short steps out of the tavern. "About Phoenix," Kaimana said, drawing Angelica's attention. "How did he kill those Nevermores so easily?"

Angelica blinked at him, momentarily stunned by Kaimana's use of a full sentence, before she smiled sadly. "He's always been good with Dust," Angelica said, tracing a road on the map idly as she spoke. "Highest grade in our class when it came to Dust manipulation. And after Robin... after Robin died, every one of us who didn't drop out or get pulled out was determined to become as strong as possible. Our teachers saw that and started letting us spar more often, holding mock tournaments every few weeks to get us more used to combat. Once they started letting us use Dust and our Semblances, though, Phoenix started winning nearly every fight he was in. So, the teachers put a handicap on him: he wasn't allowed to use Dust for most of his fights. The only person he was allowed to go all out against was Yang Xiao Long, who wasn't normally allowed to use her Semblance in our spars, either." Angelica chuckled, then said, "The first time the two of them fought... well, let's just say it costs a lot more money than you'd think to replace a training ground."

"Why doesn't he use Wind more often?" Kaimana asked, making Angelica shake her head.

"He wasn't allowed to use it at all during those spars," Angelica said. "Not even against Yang. I guess he just got used to only using it in emergencies." Angelica then turned her attention back onto the map, finding the delivery office's location quickly despite the size of the map. "Looks like its only a few blocks away," she said, folding the map back up and placing it back into her coat's pocket.

Kaimana grunted, nodding, as the two of them began to walk to the Gull's Path, Angelica leading the way. "What about you?" Kaimana asked.

"Huh?" Angelica asked, tilting her head as she gave Kaimana a confused look. "What about me?"

"Those tournaments; how'd you do?" Kaimana asked.

"Oh!" Angelica exclaimed, turning her eyes back to the cracked dirt road in front of them as a light blush lit on her cheeks. "I typically got to the semi-finals or the third-to-last round before I lost to someone, usually Yang or Phoenix," she admitted, clasping her hands together behind her back. "I did win once, though, so I've got that going for me. Oh, look, we're here!" Angelica said loudly in an attempt to distract Kaimana, and herself, from what she saw as a personal failing.

The Gull's Path storefront was a crumbling ruin, like most of the town, but it was still mostly intact; it even still had its sign, a seagull clutching an envelope in its beak, although the sign dangled haphazardly over the broken-in door and was covered in rust and faded paint. The interior had also seen better days, as piles of rotting wood, the remains of tables and shipping containers, were placed somewhat randomly throughout the front room. Some stone had fallen down from the ceiling, leaving daylight to filter in through the gaping holes in the roof, but the walls were smooth and free from dust or mold.

"Why are the walls so clean?" Angelica asked aloud as she and Kaimana stepped through the doorway, having tossed the remains of the door to one side.

"Rain?" Kaimana guessed with a shrug. He set his gaze on the room, quickly picking out a rust-covered safe sticking out of one of the larger piles of wood. "Look," Kaimana said, pointing. "Safe."

"Huh," Angelica said, gingerly stepping over a pile of wood as she walked towards the safe. "It's either got something valuable or a shipping manifest."

"Might be empty," Kaimana said, stooping to search one of the piles of wood that looked like it might have once been a crate.

Angelica snorted off a laugh, then said, "Even if its not, its probably locked." Angelica knelt down next to the safe, then put her hand on the safe's handle and tugged it down, opening it. "Well, you were right," Angelica said, looking into the safe. "Empty." Angelica frowned, running a finger along the inside of the safe. "Huh. There's dust in here, but there's a small circle in the middle of it, almost like something was taken out recently," she told Kaimana as she stood back up.

"Worrying," Kaimana said, a thin sheet of colored plastic in his hand. "Found something," he added, standing back up as he read the few words on it. He handed it to Angelica, and she read it out loud.

"'Delivery to R. Schnee,'" Angelica said. "'Contents: one statuette.' Well, looks like we found what used to be its box," Angelica said with a sigh, shooting a suspicious look at the safe. "It really feels like someone got to it first, though."

"Remember the wall from yesterday?" Kaimana asked looking out the door. "With Dust on it?"

Angelica frowned, chewing on her lower lip. "I think we aren't the only ones out here," Angelica finally said, looking up to meet Kaimana's eyes. "Let's get back to the others."

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

Phoenix sighed with relief as he put his robe back on, feeling their comforting weight over his shoulders and the gentle press of them against his sides and back. He flipped up his hood, checking the fresh stitching he'd put into it; after the stylized chains lit up red, white, and yellow, Phoenix nodded to himself with a smile.

"Only took me an hour," Phoenix muttered to himself, glancing over at the sleeping Lata. She was using her hat as a pillow, exposing the bat-like ears on top of her head. Phoenix smiled again, shaking his head beneath his hood. "I'll let her sleep," he muttered, sitting back in the chair he'd pulled into the vault before he started working. It was surprisingly intact, though it was probably the least comfortable chair he'd ever sat on; it had a metal frame and a plastic cushion, but the odd fabric that covered it had not gotten moldy, dirty, or even dusty, despite how long it must have been there.

Phoenix pulled the small green Dust crystal that Kaimana had given him out from one of his robe's many pockets, looking at it intently. He smirked, and tucked it back into his pocket, then sat back with his eyes closed, listening for any sign of the Grimm or his teammates.

It didn't take long for him to hear footsteps, or the creak that one wooden plank inside the bank itself. Phoenix sat up straighter, then stood up as he realized that there was only one set of footsteps. He drew his violin's bow, and said, "Lata."

Lata rolled over onto her side with a groan, her eyes still closed. "What?" she mumbled, still half asleep.

"Company," Phoenix said.

Lata opened her eyes and looked at Phoenix, waking up as she saw that his weapon was out. "What?" she repeated, sitting up. Her hat was on her head before she heard the footsteps, and she hurried to strap her shields onto her arms as she stood.

The man who stepped into the vault looked like a middle-aged version of Phoenix; his blonde hair had gone grey in places, and his green eyes held the weight of years in the dark lines beneath them. Of course, the fact that he was wearing a rusting suit of White Fang armor kind of ruined the look; the man's personal symbol, a cracked blue heart with a pair of white wings sprouting from it, had been painted on the breastplate, but it had been warped by time, the paint beginning to crack and peel in places. The pair of whips with long, thin blades on their tips didn't help his image much, either.

"Oh, now isn't this cute," the man said, his voice holding a light teasing quality as he looked between the two huntsmen-in-training. "I'm sorry if I'm interrupting something here, really, I am, but I need to ask a couple questions."

"Doctor?" Lata asked, confusion filling her voice as she lowered her weapons. "Doctor Bay?"

"Hm?" the man asked, looking at Lata. After a moment, he snapped his fingers as comprehension dawned on his face. "Oh, I remember you! Lata Gamble, right?"

"Yes," Lata said, a smile on her face. Her smile faded, replaced by confusion as she asked, "Why are you here?"

"Oh, I'm looking for a few things," the man said offhandedly, turning his gaze back at Phoenix, whose face had been concealed by the shadow of his hood. "Some things that you might be able to help me find."

"Why are you wearing that armor?" Phoenix asked, still suspicious despite Lata knowing him.

"Now, that's a long and complicated story," the man said with a smile, resting a hand on his hip. "One I just don't have the time to tell right now. So, if you could answer my questions..."

Footsteps creaked through the wooden floors behind him, and the man turned to look over his shoulders, raising an eyebrow as he saw Kaimana and Angelica. "Oh, and are these friends of yours, Lata?"

Angelica stared blankly at the man, her eyes locked onto his, before her face twisted with anger. "Douglas," Angelica hissed, drawing her sword. "Why are you here?"

"Wait, Douglas?" Lata asked, looking between Angelica and the man she knew as Doctor Bay. "You mean the cult leader?"

"Oho, is that my little angel, there?" the man asked, a grin flashing over his face before it turned into a grimace. "You know, I was always sorry about what happened to your brother. If I'd had a better grasp of what I was doing, maybe he wouldn't have gotten hurt."

"What are you talking about?" Angelica asked in a growl.

"Ah, and I recognize you, too," the man said, turning his attention to Kaimana. "The Odon kid, right? Kaimana. I'm sorry to say that you losing your arm was my fault too, but I've gotten so much better at it since then."

"At what?" Kaimana asked in a growl, not so much angry as worried and curious.

"At using my Semblance, of course," the man said with a smile, tapping one of the whips on his hips. "My ancestor's Semblance, Rally."

"Rally?" Phoenix asked in a whisper, his fingers brushing against his violin. "How are Grimm attacks related to Rally?"

"Oh, well why don't I show you!" Douglas Bay exclaimed, drawing one of his whips and lashing out with it three times. A blue light, so dark it was nearly black, faded into existence around him, thin lines of it extending through the walls of the bank. Howls shook the ground, and a set of black claws tore through the metal plating of the vault so easily that it looked like the Beowolf they belonged to wasn't even trying. "After all, I always try to clean up my own messes!"

Phoenix jumped away from the wall of the vault, only to realize that he and Lata had been trapped inside of it. "Angelica, Kai!" Phoenix shouted, drawing his violin as Lata began to fire her SMGs at the Grimm. "Take him down!"

Sparks flew off the Beowolf's fur and bone-like armor plating as bullets collided with, and it roared its displeasure. "What's going on?!" Lata asked frantically, backing away from the Grimm.

"He's Rallying it!" Phoenix said as he began to play, his own Rally extending red threads of light between him and his teammates. "It has Aura!"

The Beowolf roared again, a black shockwave of force flying from its gaping maw as it did. The blast knocked Lata to the ground, but she rolled with it, Phoenix's Rally granting her enough extra strength to flip back onto her feet despite only having four fingers that could reach the ground past her shields. She jumped at the Grimm, lashing out with her shields as they extended themselves with bright green energy; Lata cut through the Beowolf with ease, as if neither Rally was in effect.

But it was not the only beast that Douglas had brought: outside the hole the Beowolf had torn into the side of the bank vault stood four more Beowolves, one almost twice as large as the second largest, and an Ursa Major that was even taller than that. Each Grimm had a dark blue thread of energy connecting it to Douglas, showing that they were also being Rallied by his Semblance.

"You can handle them, right?" Phoenix asked as he continued playing his violin, sweat beginning to bead on his forehead.

"No problem," Lata said, rolling her shoulders as she stepped towards the pack of Grimm. The energy forming around her shields coalesced onto them, essentially turning them into larger versions of themselves. "Time to show off, Hedera and Helix," she said, addressing her shields with a smirk as the first Beowolf started to charge at her.

As she carved that Grimm into small pieces, Angelica and Kaimana busied themselves by fighting Douglas. The former cult leader mostly laughed as he dodged their attacks, including the waves of light that extended from their weapons, and only occasionally tripped them up with his drawn whip.

"What, is this all you've got?" Douglas asked with a smile, mirth in his eyes. "You'd think the heavy hitters of a team of Huntsmen would be able to do better than this!" He bent over backwards to dodge Kaimana's cybernetic fist, turning it into an elegant flip that should have been nearly impossible with that armor he was wearing. "Or is that it?" Douglas asked, leaning to the side to dodge Angelica's sword. "Are you two too slow to actually hit anything?"

Angelica glared at him, stopping her assault momentarily. Then, she sighed; then, she laughed. "You know, when I was a kid, I used to look up to you," Angelica said, forcing a smile on her face even as her eyes directed a very lethal look at Douglas. "You were preaching good things, after all; every man and woman should treat each other as equals, no matter their race or species. But your philosophies about the Grimm were too black and white to be realistic," Angelica said, pulling a small metal vial from a hidden pocket of her coat. Flipping its top off with her thumb, she poured the red powder within onto her sword, saying, "And now, its time to show you what 'your little angel' can do with this, my Demon's breath!" Angelica shouted as her sword burst into flame. She swung the blade, creating a sweeping maelstrom of fire that couldn't help but catch Douglas in its path, and blew apart what little was left of the bank.

Angelica grinned as the flames began to clear, but her grin was soon replaced by shock as she saw Douglas standing there, surrounded by the burning remains of the building as he slowly clapped. "Good job, Angelica," Douglas said, his eyes warm and full of pride as he looked at her. "But all this means is that it's time for me to fight seriously." As he spoke, the paint on his breastplate lit up blue, and he swept his hand at Angelica, a torrent of water flowing from his gesture and knocking her backwards.

As Angelica was slammed into the wall of the bank's vault, which had been untouched by her earlier attack, Kaimana embraced his Semblance and charged at Douglas, who swept another blast of water at the large man. The wave hit him head on, breaking around him like he was an unwavering stone despite his charge; it didn't even slow him down.

For that was Kaimana's Semblance: the ability to ignore water; it didn't have much use in more ordinary circumstances, but when it was made useful, well, it was very, _very_ useful. Douglas's eyes widened in shock as Kaimana's cybernetic fist rammed into his face, sending him flying through the still burning remains of the bank and through the wall of the building across the street. Kaimana stood, watching as the threads of Douglas's Semblance snapped and the man got onto his feet, glaring at the cyborg with hateful eyes.

"I'll get you back for that," Douglas spat, touching his bleeding lip with one finger. And with that, he turned and jumped away, kicking off of the roof of the building he had stood in to push himself away from Team PLKA.

"Clear!" Kaimana called out, turning around to face his teammates. The moment after he spoke, the red threads connecting him, Angelica, and Lata to Scordatura faded away. Angelica stood back up, wincing as she put a hand on her back. "You alright?" Kaimana asked her.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," Angelica muttered, sliding her sword into the sheath on her back as she refused to make eye contact with Kaimana.

Phoenix stood slumped against one of the bank vault's intact walls, panting, his violin and its bow dangling loosely from his hands as sweat dripped from his chin and nose. Lata was looking him over, gently probing at his arms and chest with her fingers.

"You need to rest," Lata said after a moment, shaking her head. "You've been using your Semblance way too much."

"I didn't have much of a choice," Phoenix said shakily, stepping away from the wall and falling forwards. He would have hit the ground hard if Lata hadn't reacted in time to catch him.

"Alright, you need some bed rest," Lata scolded her team's leader. "Doctor's orders."

"You aren't a doctor," Phoenix muttered, a smile forming on his face.

"Well, then, nurse's orders," Lata said, smiling back at him. "I was a nurse for a while, after all."

Phoenix chuckled, then shook his head, planting his feet more firmly on the ground. "We're not safe here," he said, loud enough for Angelica and Kaimana to hear as they approached. "We need to go back to the cave, at least until I stop shaking."

"Do you think you can make the trip?" Angelica asked, raising an eyebrow. Her expression held much more distaste than usual, their chance encounter with Douglas having put her in a foul mood.

"He can barely stand up," Lata said, looking at Kaimana. "Kai, you mind carrying him?"

Kaimana rolled his eyes, but nodded all the same, stepping to Phoenix's other side and wrapping his real arm around his team leader's shoulders as Lata stepped back.

Phoenix chuckled as Kaimana lifted him up. "Kai's carried all of us today," Phoenix mumbled, already starting to lose consciousness. Kaimana snorted, shaking his head as he lifted Phoenix over his shoulder.

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

"Are you sure we'll be safe here?" Lata asked, two of her fingers resting on Phoenix's wrist to measure his pulse. Team PLKA had returned to the cavern that Kaimana and Lata had slept in their first night in the Bleeding Forest, which they hoped was still hidden enough that they wouldn't need to abandon it and look for somewhere else to stay; after all, their previous two bases had been destroyed. A small campfire, just large enough to provide enough light for Angelica to see by, sat deep in the cave, where she was working on her sword.

"Safer here than August," Kaimana grunted, leaning his back against the wall of the cave as he sat down. He had taken the first "watch"; it wasn't totally necessary, since most of the team was still awake, but Angelica had felt it would be best to keep an eye out for the Grimm, or Douglas.

Lata sighed, nodding to herself as she removed her fingers from Phoenix's wrist. "Steady and normal," Lata muttered to herself, pulling a pair of small metal vials out of one of her pouches. "Hey, Angelica," Lata said. "Can you set up the kettle and fill it with water?"

"Sure," Angelica said curtly, setting her weapon down hard enough to make it clank loudly against the ground. "Not like I'm doing anything important or anything," Angelica muttered bitterly, opening the backpack that she'd carried back.

Lata frowned, looking up at Angelica. "Are you alright?" Lata asked softly as Angelica found the copper and aluminum tea kettle in Phoenix's backpack.

"No, I'm not alright!" Angelica snapped at the team's medic, making her flinch. "I just found out that it was Douglas's fault that my brother was crippled by a Grimm, that Kaimana lost his arm to one! And now Phoenix is out cold because of Douglas, who just so happens to be a descendant of one of our best heroes! How could I possibly be alright?!"

Lata seemed to shrink as she dropped her gaze to the ground; then, she looked back up, glaring at Angelica with enough spite in her eyes to make the shorter girl blink. "Doctor Bay was one of the few doctors I had who was genuinely nice to me," Lata said tightly, her voice cracking. "He was the one who encouraged me to find a solution of my own when no other doctor could; he even proposed Aura as something that could help me, and taught me how to use it himself."

"I'm sorry, Lata," Angelica said, reigning her frustration back in, "but Douglas is a manipulative psychopath; he probably wasn't even a doctor when he started 'treating' you. I only knew him for three years, but I did a lot of digging after I was old enough to get on a computer without my parents looking over my shoulder; he was accused of murder when he was only sixteen years old, but managed to get acquitted by smooth-talking the jury."

"I don't believe you," Lata said, almost too quietly to be heard. She turned her gaze back to Phoenix, then stood up slowly, walking over to the kettle that Angelica had dropped.

"Then would you believe me if I said that he was expelled from Shade Academy for the way he treated his teammates?" Angelica asked, almost pleadingly, as Lata set the kettle on a small iron tripod that had been put in the fire. "Would you believe me if I said he ran away from Vacuo to get away from the Huntsmen who were trying to arrest for every horrible thing he'd done after that?"

"Like what?" Lata asked, filling the kettle with Dust-conjured water from her canteen, as well as the thin green powders from the two vials she'd pulled out.

"His Semblance might have the same name as Phoenix's, and come from the same guy, but they aren't anything alike," Angelica said. "He used his to take control of the people around him, to make them his slaves," Angelica said, drawing out the word "slaves" even though she knew the effect that it would have on a Faunus like Lata. "He made them steal for him. He made them kill for him. And that's just the few things we know about; I sure hope that's everything he's done."

"Maybe he had a good reason," Lata mumbled, stirring the contents of the kettle with a heat-proof plastic spatula.

"Why are you defending him?" Angelica asked, her voice's pitch going high as she looked at her comrade with worry and disgust in her eyes.

Lata bit her lip, then turned to glare at Angelica. "Because the time I spent with Doctor Bay is probably the last few fond memories I have from my childhood," Lata said, her voice cracking as tears began to fall from her eyes. "Everything else has something awful to go with it."

"Lata..." Angelica said softly, her gaze turning from disgust and worry to one of sympathy. "You aren't the only one who feels like that," Angelica said. "My family and Douglas's cult were all I had when I was a kid, and you know how those ended up. And then Signal, after Robin..." Angelica paused, glancing at Phoenix. "After what happened to Robin, the only happy memories Phoenix had that didn't involve her were of his family. And now, after Douglas used Rally in front of him? He's going to remember that whenever someone so much as mentions the word 'family' in front of him, and I don't really know how he's going to react to it."

Lata was silent, staring at the kettle as she mixed it. "Are you scared of him?" Lata asked, glancing at Phoenix. "After learning what Douglas could do, were you scared of Phoenix?"

Angelica smiled sadly, then nodded. "For a little while, yeah," Angelica said quietly, smiling at the sleeping leader of Team PLKA. "But then Robin and I became friends, and she told me stories of how he acted before they started going to Signal." Angelica chuckled, then continued, saying, "His first pet was an injured songbird that he'd found on one of their dates, and he convinced her to help him nurse it back to health." Angelica smiled sadly, then brushed a tear from her eye. "She always said that he made her a better person, even if he always insisted that she deserved better than him."

Lata silently removed the kettle from the fire, setting it down on the ground gently. "I'm just being silly, aren't I?" Lata asked softly, forcing a smile onto her face, though it came out as a grimace. "You've all been through worse than me; what right do I have to complain about my life?"

Angelica shook her head and embraced the red haired girl. "It doesn't matter whose life was worse," Angelica said gently as Lata hugged her back, burying her face in the shorter girl's shoulder as she began to cry. "We all have the right to want something better."

At the mouth of the cave, Kaimana looked up at the sky, blinking fast to keep from crying and losing the image he'd built. 'Looks like a storm's coming,' Kaimana thought, watching the dark clouds in the distance in an attempt to distract himself.

"Tonight, while we're eating dinner," Angelica said, gently rubbing Lata's back, "we're all going to share stories about the good times we had, okay?"

Lata sniffed, lifting her head from Angelica's shoulder to nod. "That sounds like fun," Lata said, her voice cracking much more harshly than it had before.

"How 'bout it, Kai?" Angelica asked, glancing towards the mouth of the cave. She got a grunt in response, and she smiled. "Good."

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

After their little episode, Lata began slowly feeding Phoenix's sleeping form the brew she'd made, one spoonful every few minutes until the kettle had been emptied; Kaimana, while maintaining his watch, began using a small Dust crystal he pilfered from Phoenix's robe to erect small walls of stone and dirt in front of the cave to keep any rain from getting in during the night; and Angelica had gone back to working on her weapon, changing the firing method of the shotgun's secondary fire to be able to make a continuous stream of wind rather than just bursts.

Once Kaimana's watch had ended, Angelica took his place, sitting at the front of the cavern and casting worried looks up at the storm clouds while Kaimana cooked up a few more of the grenade rounds that Nora had given him the formula for, albeit with some alterations. Phoenix had yet to wake up, and Lata was beginning to grow worried for his health. So, when Phoenix did finally wake up around sunset, Lata was quick to embrace him, making enough noise with her fretful reassurances and the sort of threats you can only make to someone you deeply care about ("Don't you ever scare me like that again, or I'll... I'll... I don't know, but you won't like it!") to alert Kaimana and Angelica.

Phoenix let out a sigh when he bit into his third ration bar of the night. "I'm worried that something might be wrong with me," Phoenix said once he'd swallowed that bite. "This thing actually tastes good!"

Angelica's face scrunched up in disgust. "Ew," she said as Phoenix took another bite.

Lata let out a chuckle. "It's a side effect of the medicine I made you drink while you were out," Lata explained. "It'll make your Aura come back faster, but it also makes everything taste like barbecue."

"That's really weird," Angelica said, unable to turn her eyes away as she saw Phoenix stuff the last of his ration bar into his mouth.

"So, why was I unconscious?" Phoenix asked, unscrewing the cap on his canteen. "I mean, I was tired, but I don't think I was tired enough to sleep the whole day."

"I can only guess," Lata said, shaking her head. "If I had to, I'd say that you lost too much of your Aura too quickly, in addition to the stress of using your Semblance; unfortunately, we don't have an Aura reader out here, so it's just a theory."

"It's a shame Professor Goodwitch confiscated our Scrolls before we got sent out," Angelica said with a sigh. "This would be so much easier with them. We wouldn't have to deal with a radio, we'd be able to monitor our Auras, and we'd be able to take pictures of all the things we've seen so far; just imagine how much extra credit Professor Oobleck would give us for pictures of August!"

Lata snorted, shaking her head. "This whole mission is an extra credit assignment," Lata reminded her. "While they're all celebrating the Vytal Festival, we're stuck out here in the Bleeding Forest looking for artifacts that might not even be here!"

"Actually," Angelica said, glancing at Kaimana, who was sitting next to her, "I'm pretty sure everything is here. We've already got the ring, there's that Dust source on top of the other mountain, which might be the staff, and Kai and I found a safe that looked like it used to hold the statue."

"Recently opened," Kaimana grunted, glaring out the mouth of the cave. "Douglas, most likely."

Phoenix sighed, shaking his head. "It looks like we're going to have to deal with him, then," Phoenix said, flipping his hood over his head. "My cousin..."

"Have you ever heard anything about him?" Angelica asked, leaning forward as a frown painted itself over her features.

"Not him, specifically," Phoenix said. "But my mother did tell me stories of how there are two lines descended from Archibald Hendricks. My mother is descended from Ifrit, Archibald's son, and I'm guessing Douglas is descended from his daughter, Undine; Ifrit's version of Rally manifested as red, like mine, and Undine's was blue."

"Really?" Lata asked. "I've never heard of inherited Semblances changing color like that. Was Archibald's red or blue?"

"Mom always said that his was white," Phoenix said with a shrug. "Although, grandpa used to say that it was a full rainbow of colors, but I'm pretty sure he was just trying to see if he could make me believe him."

"Huh," Angelica said, leaning back against the wall behind her, her frown still on her face. "How is it that Douglas managed to affect all of our lives?" she asked after several moments of silence had gone by. "I just can't believe that it's a coincidence that he's changed all of our lives, and then he just shows up out here, apparently looking for the same things we are."

Phoenix let out another sigh. "I don't know Ozpin well enough, but I've got the feeling he knew all of this going in," Phoenix said, shaking his head. "About all of us, and about Douglas being here. He probably even knew that everything was here, including August."

"Yeah, that would help explain why we're out here with only an Airship for support, and even that's an hour's flight away," Lata said, laying back against the ground. As she put her hands beneath her head, they touched the wool of her hat, and she shot back upright. "Oh, I just remembered! Angelica, didn't you say we should share stories again tonight?" Lata asked, making Angelica look over at her.

"Oh, yeah," Angelica said softly, looking at the fire. She sighed, then said, "I don't know. I'm not really in the mood to talk about anything happy from my life."

"Well, why don't I start us off?" Lata asked, taking off her hat so that she could look at it. "You probably don't know just how much this hat means to me," Lata began, smiling. "It was the first birthday present my parents got me that I didn't feel guilty about."

"Why would you feel guilty about getting a present?" Phoenix asked, cocking his head sideways to look at Lata.

"Because my parents were always in debt getting me treated at the hospital," Lata said, leaning over and tapping a finger against the blonde's forehead. "I only told you guys yesterday. I always felt guilty because they were spending so much on me already. This hat was the first thing that they bought for me when they finished paying off that debt, the first time that they could actually afford to give me a gift. I remember it being a very emotional event, even though I was on my medicine by then; I can't even tell you everything I felt, all at once," Lata said, a tear trailing from her eye as she grinned. "Because of that, it's the best gift I've ever gotten, even though its just a cheap little hat."

Phoenix and Angelica smiled at her, and even Kaimana smiled, though he kept his gaze trained at the mouth of the cave so his team wouldn't see it. "Well, who should go next?" Lata asked with a blush, suddenly bashful. "I mean, if you want to."

"How about me?" Phoenix asked, running his fingers along Scordatura. "This was only a few months ago, though, so I don't know if it really fits."

"It'll be fine," Angelica said, looking at him curiously. "Just tell us!"

Phoenix chuckled, then said, "Well, I was participating in a young musician's competition. It was the final round, and we all needed to play an original piece of music for the judges, so that they could decide who would win. I didn't have anything prepared, so I was feeling more than a bit nervous as I stepped out onto the stage. I took a few deep breaths, trying to come up with something on the spot, but couldn't think of anything. Then, just as the judges looked like they were about to kick me off, I heard a tiny little voice, just at the edge of my hearing: 'Just play,' it said. So, I did." Phoenix smiled down at his violin, which he had pulled onto his lap. "I was a bit off-key at first, but then, as I got into it, the song started to just come to life."

"So, how'd you do?" Angelica asked. "Did you win?"

Phoenix smiled, shaking his head. "I only got second place; the judges docked me a few points since I didn't do too well with the first part. But, that song was just so... I kept a recording of it, and remade the early bits to be better than the judges heard."

"Could you play it for us?" Lata asked, drawing a blush from Phoenix that only she could see, as Kaimana wasn't looking and the shadows cast by his hood obscured his face to Angelica's vision. "If it's not too much to ask, I mean."

"I..." Phoenix began, then paused, looking at his team. "Sure," he finally said, lifting Scordatura and drawing its bow. Phoenix held the neck of the violin in one hand, and draped its lower bout over his shoulder (given that it had a shotgun built into it, using the chin rest would be tantamount to suicide). "Oh, but first," Phoenix said, one of the chains on his robe beginning to glow green as a light wind whipped around them. "Wouldn't want the Grimm hearing us, after all."

With that said, he began to play. The melody that rose from the violin held equal parts of sadness and love, and more than a little regret; as the song progressed, however, the sadness left it, leaving the beauty of the song's love to shine through. His team couldn't help but to stare at him; even Kaimana had abandoned his stoic watch of the entrance to gape, open mouthed, at Phoenix.

Once he was done, Phoenix set his violin back down onto his lap, his eyes closed. Kaimana recovered quickly, shutting his mouth and looking away with a light blush on his cheeks. "Wow," Lata said, looking at Phoenix intently. "That was beautiful."

Phoenix ducked his head, blushing, as Lata and Angelica continued to stare at him. "Wh-who's next?" Phoenix stammered out, looking at the ground.

"Me," Kaimana grunted, looking into the fire. His statement surprised his team, but he continued without knowing. "A couple years ago, I was getting a checkup at the hospital. While I was there, a couple doctors and nurses wheeled a crying woman past me on a stretcher. I asked the doctor I was speaking to if he knew what was wrong with her, and he said that she was a Huntress whose legs had just been ripped off by a Grimm." Kaimana's team was now stunned, both by the story he told and the fact that he was speaking in complete sentences. "I'd just finished improving my arm to be a weapon, so I went to speak to her; showed her my arm, asked if I could help her. A few days later, I'd built her a pair of cybernetic legs, and the doctors were helping me attach them and run tests on them.

"She was out of the hospital in less than a week," Kaimana said, allowing himself a small smile. "She didn't stop thanking me for a month, and taught me everything I know about Aura and Dust, helped me learn about my Semblance." Kaimana's smile widened. "Felt good to help her."

"What was her name?" Angelica asked.

"Rei," Kaimana said fondly.

"Ooh, does Kaimana have a _girlfriend_?" Lata asked teasingly, grinning at the cyborg as he blushed and looked away.

"She's seven years older than me," Kaimana said gruffly, still blushing.

"Oh, that's not that big a difference," Lata said, gesturing with her hand.

Angelica chuckled, shaking her head. "I guess it's me, next," she said, drawing her team's attention. "Well, it's not as big of a deal as yours, but, well, you know my brother is apprenticed to a tailor, right?" Angelica asked. "He's been working with cloth for a lot longer than that, though; stitching and sewing were a couple of the things he took up to get used to being awake again after his coma. When I was twelve, and he was fifteen, he made me a pair of beautiful gloves, the most gorgeous things I'd ever seen; I wore them every day I could, and kept them in my pocket when I couldn't so I could show them off if I got the chance. I wish I still had them, but they stopped fitting around the time I turned fourteen, so I donated them, hoping they could give someone else as much happiness as they'd given me." Angelica smiled, her fingers lightly caressing her coat. "He actually made the coat and boots I'm wearing, too, though I think he was hoping I'd grow into the coat," Angelica finished with a chuckle.

Lata giggled, shaking her head. "Well, should we keep going?" Lata asked, looking around the cave idly. "Tell a few more stories before we hit the hay?"

"Sure," Angelica said, nodding her head. She looked up at the ceiling, one hand on her chin as she thought. "Oh, I know!" Angelica exclaimed, snapping her fingers. "How about I tell you about the time Phoenix and I met Ruby Rose?"

"You mean the girl in our year, who got into Beacon two years early?" Lata asked, tilting her head quizzically.

"Yep," Angelica said. "She went to Signal, and is actually Yang's younger sister. It was her first year, and our third, but Professor Qrow decided to bring her out to the yard to watch our extra training, on a tournament day, no less. Ruby absolutely gushed over everyone's weapons; she was just so adorable! And then we started our fights, one on one, like usual."

"Didn't you get knocked out in the first round of that one?" Phoenix asked teasingly, making Angelica blush and pout at him.

"Phoenix!" Angelica whined, despite her smile. "To be fair, I fought Yang right off the bat, and that was before I added the secondary fire to my sword, so I had almost no chance of hitting her when she got too close, which is where she likes to be in a fight. So, yeah, I sat out the rest of the tournament and started chatting with Ruby while we watched the rest of the fights. She's really smart, even though she was a bit shy and awkward. A bit like Phoenix, now that I think about it," Angelica said with a grin, making Phoenix blush.

"Hey!" Phoenix said.

"Just getting you back for before," Angelica said with a chuckle. "Anyway, she's actually the person who suggested I add the secondary fire to my Demon. Apparently, Qrow was giving her some extra lessons on how to use that crazy scythe she made, and momentum control was a huge part of them."

"Huh," Phoenix said, leaning back against the wall. "I always wondered why you added that Dust chamber to your weapon."

"Well, now you know," Angelica said. "So, the tournament keeps going, and Yang and I are talking to Ruby, telling her a few details that she might have missed. Well, except for when Yang was in her matches; Ruby stopped listening to me when Yang was fighting. Anyway, we get down to the final match, which is Phoenix versus Yang, and Qrow decided to tell Ruby exactly what Yang and Phoenix weren't allowed to do and why."

"Glad I missed that," Phoenix said, shaking his head. "That would have been embarrassing."

"Oh?" Lata asked. "Why?"

"Don't ask," Phoenix said, blushing again. "Please, just don't."

Angelica laughed. "Let's just say that Phoenix tripped during one of their first matches, and ended up pinning Yang because of it."

"Ugh," Phoenix mumbled, hanging his head. "Please, stop."

"Okay, okay," Angelica said as she laughed. "So, anyway, they start their match, and it's pretty evenly matched, as usual. Phoenix tried to keep his distance, but Yang was persistent, sometimes punching through the fireballs he threw at her. So, Phoenix starts mixing it up, flinging around ice and stone and electricity in addition to his fire."

"Alright, you can stop there," Phoenix said, tugging his hood down even further to hide his blush, which was so bright that even Angelica could almost see it.

"He lands a lucky couple of hits with his icicles, and it turns out Yang had been having some trouble getting her Aura to shield her clothes," Angelica finished with a chuckle.

"No!" Lata exclaimed, giggling as she looked at Phoenix. "The first time her sister was there, and you do that?"

"It was an accident!" Phoenix said meekly. "I didn't know!"

"So, Phoenix freezes up, but Yang hasn't noticed, so she slams a punch right in his face!" Angelica said, still laughing. "Qrow called the match in her favor, but told her she'd better get a handle on her Aura. She asked why, and he gestured at her clothes, so she looked down. I think that's the only time I've ever seen her blush."

"Wow," Lata said, giggling at Phoenix.

"I'm pretty sure Ruby still hates me," Phoenix said, shaking his head. "Even though it wasn't my fault."

"I don't know," Lata said with a grin, poking her team's leader in the shoulder. "It kinda sounds like it was."

"Nah," Angelica said, shaking her head. "Yang told him off, chewed him out hardcore, but she told me a few days later that she didn't blame him. She said that she was the one having trouble, not him, so it was her fault," Angelica said, then paused. "Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, she also said that I should never tell you that, Phoenix," Angelica said with a chuckle, sheepishly rubbing the back of her head. "So, don't tell her?"

"Bringing that up at all would probably be a death sentence," Phoenix said, staring at Angelica with wide eyes. "Why would I ever tell her?" Phoenix shook his head, looking back at the ground. "I'm just glad Professor Taiyang never heard about that."

"Oh, yeah!" Angelica said, grinning at Phoenix. "He'd probably have strung you up as an example, huh?"

"I'm sorry, but, why?" Lata asked, looking between the two of them.

"Professor Taiyang Xiao Long is Yang's father," Angelica explained. "Ruby's, too. And he's really overprotective of them."

"Ooh," Lata cooed, patting Phoenix's shoulder. "Yeah, you really dodged a bullet there. Normal dads can get scary when some guy even starts talking to their little girl. I can't imagine what an overprotective Huntsman would do to you for something like _that_!"

"L-let's move on, please!" Phoenix said in a squeak, drawing some more laughter from his companions.

And so, the night went on, Team PLKA telling stories to each other until they decided that it was time for them to retire for the night. Angelica took the first watch as her teammates went to sleep, staring out into the night as the storm began. Despite the rain, despite the unnatural trees, and despite knowing that Douglas was somewhere out there, looking for them, Angelica smiled, content.

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

Well, I had fun writing this chapter, especially the last part. I actually decided to throw in that story-telling session of theirs at the last minute, but I think it turned out okay. It might be a bit more explicit than the show... wait, no, Qrow talked about that barmaid's skirt length. Okay, looks like I'm all good!

Also, before last week's episode of RWBY came out, I was actually operating under the assumption that most Semblances were inherited. The reason why Angelica's family didn't have many Huntsmen in it was to make her Semblance be somewhat unknown, but I guess that's all down the drain now. Oh well, that just makes Douglas a bit more of a shocker for Phoenix.

So, until next time, everybody!


	4. Chapter 4

Welcome back to the story! One thing worth noting before we go in: in this chapter, Phoenix talks a bit about Dust. Some of it may or may not be canonical; most of it is just me theorizing some rules for Dust to make it hold to my standards for systems of magic (meaning it needs some Science to it!).

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

Angelica sat up and yawned, stretching her arms behind her. Her watch that night had been uneventful, and she assumed everyone else's had been, too, given that she'd woken up naturally instead of being woken up by someone else. "Morning, guys," Angelica mumbled, frowning as she ran a hand through her hair.

She got no response, not even a grunt, from anyone; so, Angelica glanced at her teammates, who were all standing at the mouth of the cave and looking outside. "What's going on?" Angelica asked as she stood up, worry making her wake up faster.

"Snowing," Kaimana said, half-growling as he stared up at the sky.

"Hey, Angelica," Phoenix said, glancing back at her. "Mind looking at these clouds with your Semblance?"

"Um, sure," Angelica said, slowly walking to the mouth of the cave. "Doesn't it seem a bit warm for snow, though?"

"That's why I'm asking you to check the clouds," Phoenix explained, turning back to the forest as snow fell, covering the black leaves of the Heartless Trees. "I think Douglas may have something to do with this."

"Okay," Angelica said, her eyes shining white as she looked up at the sky. "Ow," she muttered, looking back down almost instantly as she squinted. "Yep, there's a bunch of Dust up there," she added, squinting as she looked back up, her hand shielding her eyes from some of the white light she saw. "Must be Ice."

Lata let out a soft noise as she looked at the ground in front of the cave. "Great," she said with a sigh. "The snow's turning to slush pretty much the instant it hits the ground. Climbing that mountain's going to be a nightmare."

"He must think we're looking for the same things as he is," Phoenix said quietly, shaking his head. "Either that, or he's testing us."

"I wouldn't put it past him to do both," Angelica said darkly. "He always was manipulative; he's probably thinking that he'll put a few extra obstacles between us and the artifacts so that we'll be nice and weak when he wants to take them from us."

Kaimana growled, a deep rumble that came from his throat and startled his teammates. "Phoenix, crystals?" Kaimana asked, extending his hand to the confused robed man.

"Oh, right," Phoenix mumbled, slinging open part of his robe and fishing a few Dust crystals out of one of the interior pockets. "Earth," he said, slipping a marble-sized crystal of brown Dust into Kaimana's hand.

"Is that all you have?" Lata asked as Phoenix closed his robe, the magnetic clasps that hold it closed snapping together audibly.

"I don't have much use for those two," Phoenix said, shrugging as he gave Lata a similarly sized crystal of Earth Dust. "I prefer Fire and Wind."

"So, what gives?" Angelica asked as Phoenix turned to her, the last two Dust crystals in his hand. "Why are you giving us these?"

"I'm giving everyone a bit of Earth Dust because we're going to be climbing up the mountain today," Phoenix said, poking the small brown crystal in his hand. "If something happens that separates us, we'll want to be able to keep moving safely."

"And the Ice?" Angelica asked as Phoenix gave her two crystals, one the same brown that Phoenix had given to their teammates; the other was white, marking it as Ice Dust, and was bigger than the Earth crystals, about the size of a small pack of gum. "Why are you giving that to me?"

"I only have the one crystal of Ice," Phoenix said, tugging on his hood with one hand to hide his blush. "And, si-since you're basically the second-in-command, well, I-I thought it mi-might be best if you have it, what with the snow and... snow."

Lata let out a giggle, grinning at Phoenix's bashfulness. "Well, thanks for being thoughtful!" Lata said cheerily, slapping a hand against her team leader's back and nearly making him fall to the ground. Lata winced, thinking that she'd probably hit him too hard, and sheepishly rubbed the back of her head, her grin turning awkward. "Uh, sorry 'bout that!"

"Lata," Kaimana grunted, looking at his fellow Faunus. "Medicine?"

Lata winced again, reaching into one of the pouches on her belt with a sigh. "Not yet. Thanks for reminding me," Lata said as she pulled out one of her canisters and shook it.

"Oh, that reminds me!" Phoenix exclaimed, turning to Kaimana. "We should make sure everyone has a few ration bars, just in case."

"Yeah, I'd really rather not repeat that first night," Angelica said, smiling sheepishly. "That wasn't fun."

"Got it," Kaimana said, walking back into the cave and kneeling down by his backpack. "Might as well hand out breakfast," Kaimana mused as he pulled ration bars from his pack, building three stacks of five ration bars.

"Thanks, Kai," Phoenix said, scooping up one of the stacks and putting four of the bars into his own backpack. He looked at the other one with a rather determined expression as he opened it, then bit into it. A small sound escaped him as he slowly chewed on the piece in his mouth; evidently, the side effect of the brew that Lata had fed to him the previous day had worn off, as the ration's normal taste assaulted his tongue.

"Ugh, I've really got to find a way to flavor this stuff," Lata muttered, stowing the now-empty canister back into her pouch as she squatted down to pick up her stack of rations. "Between my medicine and the rations, my tongue might just decide to call it quits on me."

"I know what you mean," Angelica said sympathetically, grimacing as she took a bite out of her ration, the other four safely stowed away in one of the pockets of her coat. "I know these things are supposed to be good for us, but they taste like they're trying to kill us."

"Let's just focus on something else while we eat, alright?" Phoenix mumbled, glaring suspiciously at his half-eaten ration bar.

"Make a plan?" Kaimana asked, stacking a bunch of ashen sticks into a bundle in the impromptu fire pit he'd dug out when he and Lata first spent a night in the cave. "Phoenix, light?"

"Hm?" Phoenix grunted, chewing as he looked at Kaimana. "Oh, alright," he said once he'd swallowed the bite of ration. One of the stylized chains on his robe began to glow red as flame seemed to drip from his fingertips, catching onto the sticks and igniting them. Before long, they had been turned into a somewhat small campfire.

"Thanks," Kaimana said, tossing the paper wrapper from his ration into the fire as he picked up another stick. He held it over the fire, slowly blackening it as it burnt from the heat. By the time he'd finished eating his ration bar, the stick of wood from one of the Heartless Trees had been turned into a stick of charcoal, albeit of a very low quality. Kaimana grunted, tossing it to Phoenix as he tossed his own ration's wrapper into the fire.

The stick of charcoal struck lightly across Phoenix's forehead, making him stagger slightly and leaving black dust on his face. Angelica chuckled at the sight, as the light from the fire was illuminating Phoenix's face well enough for her to actually see it.

"Thanks, I guess," Phoenix muttered, blushing as he picked up the burnt stick. "So," he began, a fire entering his eyes as he sketched a quick pictograph on the wall of the cave. It was fairly crude, depicting a single stick figure standing next to the shape of a mountain (conveniently downsized). "We've got two objectives left: the staff, which is likely on top of the mountain, and the statue, which Douglas likely has. Fighting Douglas is something that's likely going to happen no matter what we do, since he seems to be testing us, if the snow is any indication."

"He's strong," Angelica said, grimacing. "He took a fire blast from my Demon while I was supercharged from your Semblance, and he didn't even get knocked back."

"Water," Kaimana said, glancing at his cybernetic arm. "He used Water Dust."

"What does that matter?" Angelica asked, staring at Kaimana.

"You know that there are four main types of Dust, right?" Phoenix asked, drawing Angelica's attention back to him. "Fire and Water, Earth and Wind. Fire beats out Wind, which beats Water, which beats Earth, which beats Fire; well, in equal amounts, that is. However, Fire and Water, and Earth and Wind, equalize against each other," Phoenix continued explaining, making Angelica grimace again. "I'm guessing he put up a shield of Water to soak up your attack, but, the fact that he wasn't hurt at all while I was Rallying you is... scary."

"Hold up," Lata said, raising a hand. "You said 'in equal amounts'; what did you mean by that?"

Phoenix blinked, surprised, and looked around the cave at his teammates before shaking his head. "Sorry, I forgot that you two didn't get any official schooling before going to Beacon."

"Um, I actually don't know either," Angelica said, scratching her cheek with a sheepish grin. "But I think that's more because we didn't take all the same classes, Phoenix."

Phoenix cocked his head to the side, then sighed. "Right, right; you opted out of the Advanced Dust Theory class. Okay, so, how did Professor Taiyang put it?" Phoenix muttered, fingers cradling his chin as he thought. "Oh, right: if two Huntsmen of equal strength fought each other, and one was as good with Fire as the other was with Water, the two elements would just turn to steam in between them; they'd equalize," Phoenix said. "Similarly, Air and Earth would just turn to sand. Of course, the two people fighting in this scenario are either exactly equal in skill and power, or are so close in those that it doesn't matter."

"I see," Lata said, looking at the chains on Phoenix's robe. "How much Wind do you have left?" Lata asked, making Phoenix blush and look away.

"I've only got that crystal you and Kaimana found," Phoenix mumbled, just loudly enough for Lata to hear. "If it comes down to it, I'd only be able to get to him for a little while."

"Then it's a good thing you've got us, huh?" Angelica said cheerily, standing up and putting a hand on his shoulder. "You punch through any Water he puts up, and we'll punch him in the face! Right, Kai, Lata?!"

Kaimana nodded, grunting his approval, but Lata winced and stared into the fire. "Lata?" Angelica asked, looking at the team's medic. "What's wrong?"

"I just..." Lata began, then sighed. "I don't know if I can go through with this. With fighting Bay."

"Lata, Douglas is a monster," Angelica said, glancing at Kaimana. "He's the reason Kaimana lost an arm. He's the reason my brother nearly died when we were little."

"I get that," Lata growled, staring into the fire instead of making eye contact with Angelica. "But... Bay was the reason I learned about my Semblance at all. He taught me about Aura, he told me about the Huntsmen; he's the one who got me everything I needed to make my medicine the first time," Lata said sadly. "I don't think I can hurt him."

"You might not need to," Phoenix said darkly, glaring out the mouth of the cave. "He's taming Grimm and giving them Aura with his... our Semblance. We'll most likely have to fight a bunch of powered-up Grimm, and it might not be just Beowolves and Creeps next time. He might find a Nevermore, or a King Taijitu."

"Or a Goliath," Kaimana grunted, his real arm draped across Lata's shoulders.

Angelica shuddered, her breath quickening as she thought about what could happen if Douglas managed to tame a Goliath and give it Aura. "Never gonna happen," Angelica said firmly, steeling her own resolve and helping the others with theirs. "It takes a team of fully trained Huntsmen to take one of those things down; it's practically suicide to go anywhere near one on your own."

Phoenix took a deep breath, nodding at her. "Good point. We've still got a lot on our plate, though, so let's start with planning our trip up the mountain."

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

The mountain was rather large, nearly a mile tall, and was covered in the snow that was still falling, despite the heat that was pounding down on Team PLKA. They trudged through the snow on their trek, sticking to any trails they found when they could and using the Dust Phoenix had given them to clear their own trails when they couldn't.

The mountain was oddly beautiful beneath the snow, the brown and grey stone giving way in places to black and silver glass that threw up rainbows of sickly blues and greens when they caught the light. Small patches of green grasses and colorful flowers grew from the loose dirt that was present in pockets, and in one place, a selection of curious vines draped over a small cavern that was only a few feet wide, and not as deep.

"Wow," Lata had said, touching one of the green vines and watching it retract into a bulb that was stuck to the ceiling of the small cave. "I've never heard of a plant like that before!"

"Take one with you," Phoenix had suggested as Angelica cleared some of the slush out of the way with the Ice crystal. "We'll name the species after you."

"Ooh, the Gamble Vine," Lata had cooed as she plucked a few of the bulbs from the cave. "I like the sound of that!"

As the team kept climbing the mountain, Lata played with one of the vines, using her Semblance to make it extend and retract in creative ways. All in all, the first few hours of their climb had been relatively peaceful.

Of course, all good things come to an end eventually.

"Hey, Phoenix?" Lata asked as the sun shone directly onto their heads. The snow around them had been melting for hours, only to be replaced with fresh slush, making the footing extremely treacherous in places. "I've got a favor to ask."

"Oh?" Phoenix grunted, sweeping his hand at the ground, one of the chains on his robe glowing brown as he extended the dry stone beneath his feet to cover the slush and mud in front of them. "What favor?"

"I've been thinking about these vines," Lata said, making the bulb she held retract its vine. "Would it be possible to sew one or two into my jacket and hook the vines into my shields to give them some range?"

Phoenix paused, looking over his shoulder at her. "That's not a bad idea," Phoenix said, giving her a small smile before he turned back to his work. "You'd need to find a way to keep them from dying, but that could be a pretty good way to give you a bit of unpredictability in a fight."

"What?" Lata asked, her voice taking on a teasing tone. "Do you think I'm boring or something, Phoenix?"

"I-I," Phoenix stammered, unable to complete his thought. He sighed, hanging his head, once he heard Lata giggle. "That's not what I meant," Phoenix mumbled, tugging on the hood of his robe.

Lata giggled again, patting Phoenix's shoulder as she grinned. "I'm just messing with you, Phoenix," Lata said, making Phoenix sigh. "Come on, it's not that big a deal, is it?" Lata asked, her grin dissolving in worry.

"It's just," Phoenix began softly, glancing over at Kaimana and Angelica, who were taking advantage of the stop to have a discussion of their own, before turning his attention back to the ground in front of him, "you always pick on me, Lata. Never Kai, or Angelica."

Lata winced, shaking her head. "It's not like that!" Lata protested, also keeping her voice soft in an attempt to not be overheard. She blushed, then said, "I'm not going to risk losing the one girl friend I have due to some stupid joke, so I'm not going to try this stuff with her. As for Kai, well, nothing really hits with him, you know? Not much affects him like this, so I don't try all that much."

"So you've turned to me out of convenience?" Phoenix asked, his voice growing even quieter.

"It's not like that either!" Lata's voice came out in a soft squeal, her eyes flooding with panic. "You're the only one I can get this sort of reaction out of, yeah, but I... I... I didn't mean to hurt you," Lata mumbled, ducking her head to look at her feet as she blushed. "Besides, I teased Kaimana yesterday about that Huntress he talked about."

Phoenix let out another sigh, then shook his head. "Sorry, it just..." Phoenix began, then shook his head again. "I'm just tired, is all. My legs feel like they're on fire; my shoes weren't built for this sort of thing, so my feet are hurting even worse; we're out here on a mission to find some random junk in the middle of nowhere instead of having fun at the Vytal Festival; and to top it all off, I'm pretty much going to have to fight a person who I didn't know existed until yesterday who just so happens to be my cousin and a psychopath." Phoenix sighed yet again, turning his attention to the sky as snow continued to fall. "There's a lot on my mind, none of it's any good, and I'm seeing everything at its worst right now."

"I'm sorry, Phoenix," Lata said softly, putting her hand on his shoulder again, being careful not to hurt him with the shields she wore. "I should've... I should've known better."

"Everything alright?" Angelica asked loudly, breaking from her brief conversation with Kaimana to check in on them.

"Yeah, we're fine," Phoenix called back, nodding at his second-in-command. "We should break for lunch soon, though; it's nearly noon."

"Good call," Angelica said, patting a hand against her stomach as she grimaced. "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse."

Lata smiled and shook her head, then said, "Wow. Now I know why you're our team's leader."

"What?" Phoenix asked, shooting Lata a perplexed look. "Why?"

"Even through everything you've got in your head, you're still planning everything out," Lata said, poking a finger against Phoenix's forehead as he blushed.

"I... thanks," Phoenix said, sweeping his hand at the ground, one of the chains on his robe glowing brown. As the stone under his feet extended, covering up the layers of slush, snow, and mud in front of him, a growling roar that almost sounded like a demonic sheep ripped through the air, making him flinch. "What was that?!" Phoenix asked, immediately recovering from his embarrassment, his eyes searching the mountainside.

A tremor rocked the mountain beneath Team PLKA's feet, sending them stumbling; Kaimana had to use his Earth Dust to extend the stone beneath his feet, just barely catching himself as he nearly fell backwards off the mountain. Rocks blasted out of the mountain around them, pouring dirt and snow down the mountain and sending another tremor through the ground.

Out of the holes now open in the mountainside climbed three Grimm, each one bigger than the next. Bone-like armor plating covered their flanks, the tops of their forelegs' shoulders, and their faces, though they did nothing to hide the heavy hooves or the wickedly sharp teeth in their mouths. Their tails thrashed back and forth, almost like they were alive, and were tipped with knots of coarse black fur. Muscles bulged in the largest one's forelegs as it roared, brandishing the three horns jutting from its head; the two horns on the sides of its head were curved, intended for bludgeoning, while the third jutted forth from the center of the creature's forehead like a jagged dagger.

"What are these things?!" Phoenix asked, drawing his violin. He fired at the one nearest him as it jumped at him, knocking it off course and sending it plummeting down the side of the mountain. The Grimm crashed violently against the jagged rock below, the flesh dissolving from its wounds marking it as dead.

"Some kind of Grimm!" Angelica yelled, cleaving her sword through the one that leapt at her, lopping off the goat-like Grimm's hind legs and sending it spiraling down the cliffside.

"More of them!" Kaimana shouted, firing a grenade round into one of the holes the first three had made as more crawled out of them. Blue smoke was propelled by the concussive force that collapsed the hole on top of the mountain-dwelling Grimm, covering one of the creature's faces with blue dust. It roared, a rotten sound that was not dissimilar to a goat's bleat, and it charged blindly, knocking another of its kind off of the mountain with its wickedly sharp horns before going over the edge itself, killing the both of them.

Lata laughed as she played with her new vines, entangling the Grimm that were small enough and slamming them into the ground and each other, before she threw them over the side of the mountain when she felt that they'd die from it.

The Grimm were unrelenting, charging the team and knocking holes in the mountain until nearly two dozen of them had perished, leaving the team of Huntsmen-in-training panting and exhausted.

Phoenix licked his lips as he put its violin back in its place on his hip. "That was... unexpected," Phoenix panted, pulling out his canteen and unscrewing its cap. "Maybe we should break for lunch now, rather than later."

"Good call," Angelica said, sliding her sword into the sheath she wore on her back. She collapsed to the ground, pulling her legs underneath her and twisting her sword's sheath sideways so it wouldn't get in her way while she sat. "What're we planning on eating?" she asked, looking pointedly at Lata.

"Rations," Lata said, shaking her head as she sat down. "I don't have any seeds for anything with even a passable amount of calcium or iron, so we're going to want to eat our rations for lunch." Lata smiled, looking a the vine bulb she held in her hand.

Angelica let out a groan, hanging her head. "I really hate these rations," Angelica muttered as Kaimana started pulling rations out of his backpack.

"Well, at least you'll have something to wash it down with," Lata said, gesturing for Phoenix to toss her his backpack. "I'm going to make an elixir for us, something that'll help us recover."

"Why is this so hard?" Phoenix asked, looking up at the two thirds of the mountain they still had to climb. "I know that climbing at an incline is harder than walking on level ground, but shouldn't we be farther up by now?"

Angelica sighed, shaking her head. "This mountain's about a half mile tall, and we've already circled it a couple times while we were climbing it," Angelica explained, glumly looking at the two ration bars Kaimana had handed to her. "I guess we've walked about four miles so far? All of it uphill. And we've still got most of it left," Angelica added, wincing as she looked up.

"I'm glad you're with us, Lata," Phoenix said, nodding at the bat-eared Faunus. "How long will this thing take to brew?"

"O-only a few minutes," Lata said, trying to hide her blush as she pulled the copper and aluminum tea kettle out of Phoenix's backpack. "It'll kick in fast, too. It's got one side effect, though that'll actually help us a bit."

"What side effect?" Angelica asked, raising an eyebrow as Lata blushed again.

"Um, it'll slow our bodily processes down a bit," Lata mumbled, just loudly enough for the others to hear. "We won't need to... um, use a restroom until it wears off."

"Well," Phoenix said, blinking in surprise. "That's not what I expected."

"Kai, you've got any wood in that backpack?" Lata asked, drawing a nod from him. "Good. Mind setting up a small fire for me? I've got some seeds to grow before I've got everything I need, but that shouldn't take too long."

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

"How much farther?" Lata asked, panting, as the team reached a particularly sheer wall of rock. After their break, they had continued climbing the mountain using the same tactics as before. Several hours had passed, the snow had stopped falling, and the sun was getting close to setting.

"Another few hundred feet," Angelica answered her, watching as Kaimana and Phoenix used their Earth Dust to grow a crude stone staircase from the wall, bricks and lumps of stone extending from the cliff side in front of them. Angelica's Earth crystal had crumbled into uselessness earlier, and Lata's had been lost at some point, likely during the attack by the goat-like Grimm. "We should make camp once we get to the peak and see what it was that I saw," she added, rubbing at her leg and wincing.

"Got it," Phoenix said with a nod, starting to go up the stairs, Kaimana behind him. "We're going to make sure this thing is stable, so you two should stay here for the moment, rest a bit."

"That'll be fine," Angelica said, smiling at her team's leader. "Lata and I have a couple of things to talk about while you two are busy."

"Do I want to know?" Phoenix asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Just girl talk," Angelica said with a shrug. "Shouldn't take too long, so why don't you two get a move on?"

"Alright, alright, we're going already," Phoenix said, rolling his eyes (not that Angelica saw that; his hood, shadow, you know the drill by now). Phoenix and Kaimana started to go up the staircase, occasionally growing new support struts out of the rock wall and placing new steps as needed.

"Gi-girl talk, huh?" Lata asked, sitting down shakily as she smiled nervously at Angelica. "What-what's on your mind?" she stammered, making Angelica chuckle at her.

"There's no need to get so nervous, Lata," Angelica asked, smiling gently at the team's medic. "I've just got something to ask you," she added, glancing up at Phoenix, who was far enough away that he wouldn't be able to hear them easily.

"Well, ask away," Lata said, taking a deep breath as Angelica sat down next to her.

"You've got a crush on Phoenix, don't you?" Angelica asked after a moment, making Lata blush and giggle nervously.

"Wh-who, me? N-n-no..." Lata stammered, making Angelica smile at her again.

"It's fine if you do," Angelica said, winking at Lata. "It's just that... well, you know about Robin..."

"Yeah," Lata said, leaning forward and hugging her legs to her chest as she frowned. "He's still not over her, is he?"

"I don't know if he ever will be," Angelica said sadly, keeping herself from glancing up at Phoenix again. "But he needs to be able to move past her if he wants to live a happy life, and I want to do what I can to help him with that."

"What are you saying?" Lata asked, trying to keep her voice calm and clear of the confusing mix of emotions she was feeling, even through the haze her medicine typically pulled over them.

"I'm saying that I want you to ask him out," Angelica said, making Lata blush again. "Not right now, of course, but when we finish up here and are flying out of here on the airship. He needs someone to help him, and you seem like a good match for him."

"Why me?" Lata asked, looking at Angelica suspiciously. "You seem like you like him too, so why haven't you asked him out?"

Angelica smiled sadly, shaking her head. "I did," Angelica said, making Lata stare at her. "A year ago, when we were starting our last year at Signal, I asked him out. I thought he was cute, and hurting, and wanted to help him deal with his pain," Angelica said, shaking her head. "I was stupid and selfish, and he turned me down. But that doesn't change me wanting the best for him."

"What about me is the best for him?" Lata asked, glaring at the ground. "I'm the only one of us who doesn't want to hurt Bay, who he seems to be thinking of as his rival or something. I'm slow to trust, and don't know much of anything about dating. I've got a mental disorder, for god's sake!" Lata exclaimed quietly, shutting her eyes to try to keep tears from flowing. "If you want the best for him, then why do you want me?"

"Because you're a good person," Angelica said simply, drawing Lata's gaze back to her. "You care enough about him to think that you don't deserve him. Honestly, you're reminding me of Robin right now," Angelica said, smiling at the sun as it slowly drifted down through the sky. "She always said that Phoenix was too good for her, too." Angelica shook her head, looking back at Lata. "He didn't use to be this dark, this angry," Angelica explained. "Those chains on his robe? Before Robin died, they were birds. His music was always happy, full of love."

"Didn't that violin belong to Robin?" Lata asked, making Angelica nod. "Then what did he play?"

"Anything he could find," Angelica said, smiling. "An old piano in one of the classrooms at Signal, a flute someone gave him as a present; I once saw him pick up a couple of sticks and start whacking them against a tree, and he somehow made it sound good."

"So, your plan is to stick the girl who spent her life in a hospital with the apparently genius musician," Lata said dryly. "We don't have all that much in common, you know."

"Don't you?" Angelica asked, smiling again. "After all, you've come up with a lot of old world style medicines already, and you're only seventeen. Some would say that _you_ are a genius, Lata," she added, drawing a blush from the medic.

Lata remained quiet, letting her gaze drift up to the sky. "I'll think about it," Lata said, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Just remember what I said earlier, okay?" Angelica asked, nodding her head. "Don't ask him out until we're leaving or gone. I don't want you two starting a relationship in a place called the Bleeding Forest."

"Right," Lata said, her eyes drawn to Phoenix as he waved at them.

"Hey!" Phoenix shouted to the pair of young women. "You two done yet?"

"Yeah!" Angelica yelled at him. "We're gonna come up now, so just wait a minute!"

"Got it!" Phoenix shouted, giving her a thumbs up.

"Well, Lata?" Angelica asked, standing back up. "Are you ready?"

Lata rubbed at her leg, then nodded, taking Angelica's offered hand and using it to pull herself back onto her feet. "Yeah," Lata said, glancing at Phoenix with a blush. "I think so."

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

"We've gotta decide whether we should make camp for the night or push the last hundred feet or so to the top," Phoenix said, looking up the relatively short distance between him and the mountain's peak, the moon rising behind it. The sun had set mere minutes ago, but the moon was shining brightly enough to see by. He turned to his teammates, all of them looking as tired as he felt. "Well?"

"You asking us?" Angelica asked, stifling a yawn behind her hand. "I think we can make it, but I don't know if we'll find a good place to sleep up there."

"Too much shadow," Kaimana said, eyeing the pockets of darkness that dotted the mountainside around them. "Might be too dangerous for you and Angelica."

"Agreed," Lata panted, sitting down on the ground. "And I don't think I've got another hundred feet of climb in me."

"Alright," Phoenix said, looking around him, "then let's make a cave to sleep in. Kai, do you still have that Earth crystal?"

"Burned out," Kaimana grunted. "Sorry."

Phoenix winced, then shook his head. "No problem, I've still got some left," he mumbled, one of the chains on his robe glowing brown as he swept his hand at the rock wall in front of him. The ridge they stood on shook as it slowly pushed out from the mountain, growing itself off of the displaced stone and dirt. Before long, Phoenix had built a cave in the mountain, about ten feet deep and eight feet around at its widest point. "Got it," Phoenix said, dots swimming in his vision as he panted. "Maybe it's a good thing we're stopping for the night."

"You don't have much left either, do you?" Angelica asked, smirking at her team's leader. "Good thing I take first watch, huh?"

"Y-yeah," Phoenix said, stumbling into the cave he'd made and using its wall to brace himself. "Sorry. I must be more tired than I thought," he added, sliding to the floor, slipping his backpack off as he sat down and leaned his head back against the wall.

"Thanks, Phoenix," Lata said, standing back up to walk into the cave. "Ugh, my legs are killing me."

"Well, at least we can get some sleep now," Angelica pointed out as Lata let herself collapse onto the rough floor of the cave. The team's medic was asleep almost instantly, Phoenix following her leader mere moments afterwards. "That was fast," Angelica muttered, raising an eyebrow at her sleeping companions.

"You talk to Lata about Phoenix?" Kaimana asked, standing outside of the cave and looking out at the stars above.

"Yeah," Angelica said, moving to stand next to him but choosing to look down the cliff instead of up at the sky. "I think she'll go for it."

"Not until we leave?" Kaimana asked, turning to face her.

"Yeah, yeah, I made sure she got that part," Angelica said, pouting at Kaimana. "Why couldn't we let them just start it now, though? The forest might be awful, but great relationships have been forged in worse."

"Not the forest," Kaimana said, shaking his head. "Douglas," he said, making Angelica glare out at the forest. "They start here, he uses it against them. They start when we're done, Douglas is... resolved. Can't hurt them."

"I hate him," Angelica whispered softly, though Kaimana still heard her. "He lies, he steals, he manipulates people; he ruins everything he touches, and I don't want him getting to Phoenix. Or Lata," she added quickly.

"You like him," Kaimana grunted, not asking a question so much as stating a fact.

"I..." Angelica began, but then sighed and shook her head. "Yeah. I like him a lot. But I'd just remind him of her, and I won't do that to him."

"You care," Kaimana said, looking at the stars again. "That helps him. More than you think."

"I also like you," Angelica said, her voice barely above a whisper. Kaimana turned to face her as she continued, saying, "I know what you're thinking, that I just want something that I can't have, that I shouldn't like more than one person like that. But I like you, too."

Kaimana grunted, facing the sky again with a blush that Angelica didn't see. "Why do you think you can't have me?"

"I... I don't know," Angelica said, looking at Kaimana out of the corner of her eye. "I guess I just thought you would say no."

"Might not," Kaimana said, a small smile growing on his lips.

Angelica giggled for a moment, then asked, "Well, Kai, would you like to go out with me? Once we get back, I mean; I don't think we'd have a good first date out here."

"Yeah."

"Well, I guess that's decided, then," Angelica said quietly, stepping closer to Kaimana and leaning against him as they stared out into the distance. His arm soon wrapped itself around her shoulders, pulling her closer. "We should keep this secret until we get back. Otherwise Lata will think we're a couple of hypocrites."

"We are, but I agree."

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

A ragged scream ripped through the night in the abandoned town of August. Douglas had been searching without any success for clues as to the whereabouts of the Stone Ring and the Staff of Hendricks for the whole day, and had finally stumbled upon the secret room hidden in the cartographer's shop.

"I should have killed those brats a long time ago," Douglas muttered to himself, stomping up from the stone steps of the hidden staircase. "If I'd cleaned up my mess earlier, I wouldn't have to deal with them now!"

"Oh, but you shouldn't be so cruel to them," Douglas said, his voice a good deal softer and meeker as he addressed himself. "After all, Miss Gamble's medical theories have helped you a lot more than you think they did."

"Then what do you think I should do, Bay?" Douglas snarled, his voice returning to its normal timber, even laced with anger as it was.

"Round up some Nevermores, fill them with your Rally, and have them deal with the children," Bay said soothingly. "Then, you can keep looking for the artifacts while they're being dealt with, Douglas."

"Excellent thought, Bay," Douglas hissed, grinning wickedly up at the moon. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a soft, tiny light shining on top of the mountain, and his grin widened further. "I even know where to send them..."

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

Sorry this chapter's so short, everyone, but I am doing a "one chapter equal one day" thing here, and a lot of the team's climbing was just them climbing. Not much to deal with there.

Oh, and I hope you liked the new type of Grimm I decided to make. Honestly, they were a spur of the moment thing that might show up once more, in the next chapter, but then won't really show up anymore after that, even if you liked them; they're mountain dwelling Grimm, not something you're likely to see in a forest or city despite their burrowing tendencies (which they accomplish with their horns).

So, until next time!


	5. Chapter 5

Welcome back, folks!

Just for the sake of having a better way to talk about the goat-Grimm from the previous chapter, I've decided to call them Capras (or, as a singular, Capra). Just letting you know for when I use it in this chapter.

Enjoy!

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

The sun rose, and Phoenix was in a foul mood. He was sitting at the mouth of a cave, his team asleep behind him as light slowly bled into the world around him, the sun rising on the other side of the mountain from him. "Figures," he muttered, glowering out at the forest of white trees with black leaves beneath him. "Of course we ended up facing southwest." Phoenix sighed, lightly brushing his fingers against the violin he cradled in his lap; he thought about playing a song, but decided against it, as he was only an hour into his watch and his friends could use the extra sleep.

Phoenix sighed again, resting his chin on one of his hands as he stared out at the forest. Occasionally, he thought he saw something dark moving between the trees, but he always dismissed it, reasoning that even if he had seen a Grimm it would be too far away to be a legitimate threat. So, when he saw a mass of dark shapes launch themselves above the tree line and start flying right for the mountain's peak, Phoenix grit his teeth and stood up, tapping his violin's sword-like bow against the rock walls of the cave and making enough noise to wake up his team.

"We've got company," Phoenix said, glaring at the group of three Nevermores as they approached.

"Great," Angelica mumbled, running a hand through her tousled black hair as she sat up, her eyes still bleary from sleep. "Give me a minute."

"Oh, for the love of..." Phoenix muttered, raising his violin by the neck and pointing the bout out the cave. He pulled the trigger in the neck, firing the shotgun that was built into the violin and startling his team enough to wake them up more quickly. "Three Nevermores, incoming!"

"What?!" Lata exclaimed as she sat up, already strapping her shields to her arms. "How do they know where we are?" she asked as she stood up, rearranging the chullo she wore so that it covered her all but one lock of her red hair.

"Don't know," Phoenix said, taking aim at one of the massive, bird-like Grimm with his violin. "But I'm guessing Douglas sent them."

"Aura?" Kaimana asked, flipping the hand of his cybernetic arm up on its hinge and taking aim with the arm's built-in cannon.

"Most likely," Phoenix growled. He fired his shotgun, the blast doing little more than aggravating the Nevermore it hit as they moved in close, now barely more than thirty feet away from the mountain.

Kaimana fired his cannon, the blue-and-black shell that launched from it whistling as it tore through the sky to strike a Nevermore in it's bone-like armored face plate. The round exploded, creating a cloud of blue smoke that quickly congealed into powder, which then slowly drifted down and covered everything beneath it in a haze of blue, including the eyes of the Grimm it had hit. The beast shrieked, but once it had cleared the haze of blue smoke it was revealed to be uninjured. "Rally," Kaimana grunted, both as a statement of fact and as a request, while he reloaded, sliding another round into a compartment in the side of his arm.

"Got it," Phoenix said, jumping back into the cave as Angelica and Lata stepped up to replace him. They aimed their weapons, Lata's SMGs hidden in her shields and the shotgun built into Angelica's massive flamberge, at the Grimm as Phoenix swung his violin around, resting its bout on his shoulder as he raised his bow to it. Music, sad, angry, and beautiful, fell from Scordatura as Phoenix began to play, and red light swelled up around him, extending thin lines between him and his companions.

The music was their cue to fire, big blasts of blue, green, and white light echoing from their weapons as they pulled on the power of Phoenix's Semblance, Rally. Kaimana's shot hit the same Nevermore as before right as it started shooting its feathers with a sweep of its wings, the explosion from the round turning its head into dust and knocking its feathers off course; Lata aimed at the wings of one of the Grimm, ripping them to shreds and sending the screeching Grimm tumbling into the side of the mountain, causing it to rumble beneath their feet; and Angelica peppered the last of the beasts with her shotgun's powerful blasts, tearing great strips of quickly dissolving flesh from its feathery form and cracking its bone-like armor plating into pieces.

Phoenix stopped playing the instant he knew that the Nevermores were dead, sweat beginning to collect on his brow as the red light of his Semblance faded. His breaths came long and deep, just shy of panting, as he slid his violin and its bow into the special holster built into the side of his robe.

The skin around his cheeks had turned blue.

"Phoenix!" Lata exclaimed, her voice coming out very similarly to a squeal as she turned to face him and saw the state he was in. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Phoenix said, his breathing beginning to even out even as Lata grabbed his wrist and placed two fingers against it. "I'm fine."

"Your pulse is fine," Lata muttered, staring at the discoloration on Phoenix's face. "But you aren't. What's going on?"

Phoenix clenched his jaw, feebly trying to tug his wrist out of Lata's grasp as he sighed. "I told you, I'm fine," Phoenix said, barely moving his lips as he looked away from Lata.

"No, you aren't, and if you don't tell me what's going on right now, I'm going to tie you up and stuff you in a hole," Lata growled, her brown eyes practically glowing in the shadows of the cave.

Phoenix growled as well, then tugged on his arm, pulling his wrist free. He chewed on his lip, frustration in his eyes as he said, "I have congenital heart disease."

Lata gasped, her eyes widening. "You what?!" she screeched, taking a step away from Phoenix. "Then, two days ago, when you... and I... oh, god, you nearly died!"

"No, I was fine," Phoenix said, shaking his head.

"How could you have possibly been fine?!" Lata yelled, stomping around in the limited space of the cavern. Angelica stood horrified at the mouth of the cave, Kaimana behind her with an expression that was both skeptical and thoughtful. "I gave you an Aura treatment when I should have been giving you CPR!"

"My Aura was what I needed," Phoenix said, sighing. He poked a finger against his chest, just a few millimeters below his heart. "I have an implant that regulates my heartbeat, but it's powered by my Aura. When I use my Semblance, it doesn't get enough of my Aura to work, and you've only seen me using my Semblance in stressful situations; it's not like my Semblance would kill me by itself."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Lata asked, her voice quieter and so thick with her mixed emotions that it almost seemed solid to Phoenix. "About any of this?"

"Why didn't you tell _me_?" Angelica asked, glaring at Phoenix. "We've known each other for years, and you never once thought to mention this?!"

"How am I supposed to bring this sort of thing up?" Phoenix asked, growling. "'Hey, thanks for the help studying, by the way, if not for experimental cybernetic technology I'd be having a heart attack right now'?"

"How long?" Lata asked. "How long have you known about this?"

"My whole life," Phoenix said, taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself. "The reason my mother never became a Huntress was because she had it, and I ended up developing it when I was five."

"When'd you get the implant?" Kaimana asked, giving Phoenix a hard to read look.

"A few months before I started at Signal," Phoenix said, shaking his head. "I was twelve."

Kaimana smirked, then tapped his arm. "You're welcome."

"Huh?" Phoenix asked, looking at Kaimana skeptically.

"Doctor Moss did it, right?" Kaimana asked, making Phoenix nod, although his expression grew even more skeptical. "I grew up poor, Moss helped me anyway, saved my life, got me the parts I needed for my arm. Few months later, he asked me to help him make an implant to regulate someone's heartbeat. Didn't ask who it was for; figured I owed Moss a few favors." Kaimana smirked, nodding his head at Phoenix. "Guess it was you."

"Phoenix," Lata growled, making him flinch and drawing his attention back to her. "When we get back to Beacon, you and I are going to have a long talk about the things you should be telling me. For now, I absolutely forbid you from using your Semblance again."

"No," Phoenix said, shaking his head. "If I can sacrifice myself to save all of you, then I will."

"And what happens to us after you're dead, huh?" Lata asked, punching Phoenix in the shoulder; as she was still wearing her shields, his Aura took the hit, letting him bounce away from the sharp blade. "What do you think happens to a team that gets their leader killed? If you had bothered reading the orientation packet, you'd know that we'd get kicked out and blacklisted from all Huntsmen-related businesses and organizations, including Beacon Academy."

"Lata," Phoenix began, only to get cut off by the team's medic.

"And if you had half a brain, you'd know that we'd be too busy grieving your death to give a damn about that!" Lata growled, punching Phoenix again, this time in the stomach. "Remember why you said you wanted to be a Huntsman? So that no one else would have to feel the way you felt when Robin died." Another punch. "Are you abandoning that? Do you think she'd approve of what you've been doing to yourself?!"

"I..." Phoenix began, only to sigh and shake his head, turning his gaze to the floor. "No."

"Then what makes you think that we would?! We care about you, and _we won't let you kill yourself_!" Lata screamed, punching Phoenix in the face and knocking him to the ground. Phoenix rolled his tongue around in his mouth as he lay on the ground, wincing when it touched his cheek and felt the bruise already forming. "Now get up, and let me help you."

"What?" Phoenix asked softly, sitting up and touching his hand to his bruised cheek. He was dazed, and not just by Lata's punch.

"Here," Lata said, squatting down in front of him as she pulled a small container out of her pocket, worry shining in her eyes. "I'm sorry," she mumbled, unscrewing the cap on the container and scooping a small amount of gel out of it with two of her fingers. "This will help," she added, lightly brushing Phoenix's hand off of his cheek and gently rubbing the gel onto it.

"Lata?" Phoenix asked quietly, looking into her soft, brown eyes. "Why?"

"Because we care," Lata said, a light blush on her cheeks. "Because I care. And you know I'm going to blame this on not taking my medicine yet, so don't get any bright ideas, okay?"

As Lata began treating the small scrapes and bruises she'd given Phoenix, Angelica and Kaimana stepped out of the cave, looking out at the forest below like they had the night before. "Why'd you tell Phoenix that you built his implant?" Angelica asked quietly, knowing that Lata's ears were particularly keen.

"Lata," Kaimana said simply. "Gave her time, let her cool off a bit." Kaimana smirked, then added, "Plus, can make a better implant. Reserve battery, let him use his Semblance without killing him."

Angelica sighed, smiling. "Then I guess I should thank you twice. Once for keeping Lata in check, and once for letting me meet Phoenix."

"Hm?" Kaimana grunted, glancing at Angelica.

"If you hadn't built that implant for him, he probably wouldn't have gotten into Signal," Angelica explained, still smiling. "None of us knew each other, but you still let me meet one of the best friends I've got."

"Welcome," Kaimana said, smiling as he stared at the cloudless sky.

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

After all of the drama, Team PLKA decided to start their day, eating their breakfast of rations in a somewhat awkward silence. Angelica and Lata were still mad at Phoenix, though neither was as mad as they acted, but Phoenix and Kaimana had become much more comfortable with each other, though neither said a word to each other over breakfast.

After their meal, the team made the trek up the last hundred feet to the peak and found it to be a roughly circular plateau nearly a hundred feet wide. A small obsidian stand stood in the center of the plateau, looking as if it should have borne a statue. Snow rested on the ground, the thin air chill enough at this altitude to keep it from melting into slush.

"Wow, this looked a lot thinner from far away," Angelica said, pulling her maps out of her pocket and handing one to Kaimana to hold so that she could more easily compare the two, using the height of the mountain to expand her view of the horizon. "I wonder why the ground up here's so even?"

"Rain?" Phoenix said, his voice forming the response into a question as he approached the smooth black glass. He squinted once he stood over it, his eyes only barely making out the thin carvings inscribed into the obsidian. "Hey, Lata?" Phoenix called over his shoulder, only to jump slightly as he realized that the red haired medic was standing next to him. "Do you have any powder you wouldn't mind me using?" Phoenix asked, blushing, once he'd recovered from the shock.

"For what?" Lata asked, forcing her voice to be a bit harsher than usual despite her curiosity.

"Do you remember that stone tablet covered with Dust we saw on our second day here?" Phoenix asked, drawing a nod from Lata. "There's some sort of inscription on this, but it blends in too well. I think we should do what Douglas did to the tablet and reveal the message."

"Okay," Lata said, nodding her head as she pulled a long canister out of one of the pouches she wore on her belt. "Here," she said as she handed it to Phoenix. "It's an anti-venom base, really cheap to make from sage and parsley; I've got another one of those on me if you need more."

"Thanks," Phoenix said, already pouring the crushed green herbs over the obsidian. Once he'd emptied it onto the inscription, he pressed on the herbs, squeezing them into the carved words; after a few moments, he nodded his head and swept the loose herbs off of the obsidian, leaving the flakes and dust he'd pressed into the inscription stuck in the holes.

"Clever," Lata said, reading the inscription with Phoenix.

 _Ifrit_

 _I'm sorry._

 _I know you can't forgive me, because I will never forgive you, but I'm still sorry._

 _I sealed our father's staff into this obsidian because neither of us deserves it._

 _I've Charmed one of the Beasts, a two-headed snake, into sleeping beneath this stone. If the obsidian is broken, it will awaken and attack whoever is near._

 _I'm sorry, but it was the only way. You know what that feels like._

 _Undine_

Phoenix swallowed nervously, running his hand along the obsidian plate, only now noticing the long shape it contained. He took a deep breath, then let it out slowly, building his resolve to destroy the only fragment of his ancestors' lives that he'd ever seen.

"Phoenix?" Lata asked, placing her hand on his shoulder comfortingly. "I'm ready when you are."

"Then let's do this," Phoenix said, giving her a small smile. "Hey!" Phoenix called over his shoulder, getting Angelica's and Kaimana's attention. "Get ready for a fight!" he said as one of the chains on his robe began to glow brown. With a flick of Phoenix's wrist, the obsidian shattered, the shards all flowing away from him and the staff that they used to contain.

Archibald Hendricks's Staff was a simplistic weapon, six feet of solid oak. The top flared into a rounded circle, through which hung several silver bells. There were no complex mechanisms, no moving parts other than the bells looped through the top rung, and Phoenix basked in its simplicity for a moment, feeling like he understood his ancestor a bit more just by looking at the weapon.

As Phoenix picked up the staff, the ground beneath his feet began to rumble. At the northern edge of the plateau, rock shattered up in a veritable geyser of broken stone, and a dark shape emerged from it, coiling its long dark body as it drew itself from the mountain. As it pulled more and more of its body out, the black scales it was covered with gradually gave way to white, until the beast had pulled forth its other head from the stone; all in all, its body was likely more than three hundred feet in length. Identical frills shot up from the necks of the colossal Grimm, two for each head, as its mouths opened and shrieked in unison, black smoke dribbling from its jaws, full of rows of teeth as long and as sharp as Angelica's sword.

"That's not a normal King Taijitu," Angelica muttered, staring at the massive snake-like Grimm in a mixture of awe, fear, and hatred as she regrouped with Lata and Phoenix.

"Then let's kill it," Lata said, grinning wickedly at the beast in front of her and raising her arms to point the SMGs in her shields at it.

Kaimana's hand flipped up, and he fired a grenade round from his arm, blue smoke erupting against the snake's white head as the grenade exploded. The powder slowly began to settle over the bone-like armor of the creature's face-plate, but it and the smoke that surrounded it were blasted away from the Primordial Taijitu as it roared to the heavens, black smoke filling the air above it. Bullets screamed through the air, fired from Angelica's sword and Lata's shields; they bounced off of the tough scales of the Grimm with no effect.

"Lata!" Phoenix shouted. "Like the Nevermore!"

Lata looked at him for a moment before she realized what he meant. "Right!" she exclaimed, still firing one of her SMGs at the Grimm as she pulled a few yellow seeds from one of her pouches with her other hand. As the Grimm slithered towards them, dragging its enormous body across the plateau, Lata ran towards it, green light filling the space around her as she whipped a pair of thick white vines around the neck of the black head. "Burn, you freak!" Lata shouted, tugging on one of the vines and rupturing it, causing it to spill sap around the Primordial Taijitu's neck as the creature lunged its head at her. The bone-like armor slammed into Lata, knocking her back into Kaimana, who caught her with his real arm.

Phoenix glared at the Grimm, flame spilling from his hand as three of the chains on his robe lit up red. He thrust his hand towards it, a pillar of red fire flowing from his palm as he shouted wordlessly. The instant the flame touched the vine's sap, it turned green as it burned the chemicals contained within the plant. The fruits that grew from the vine were no less flammable; in fact, they were downright explosive, erupting into white-hot pockets of flame against the Grimm's neck.

The beast roared in pain, black smoke flowing from its black head as the white head thrust itself towards the team. Angelica jumped at it, slamming the flat of her blade against the Primordial Taijitu's chin and knocking it off course with her sheer strength, causing the white head to crash into the ground twenty feet away, throwing up stone shards and snow.

"Kai!" Angelica shouted as she started to fall. "Remember the Death Stalker?!"

Kaimana smirked, stepping forward like he was preparing to throw something as he caught Angelica by the leg. He shifted his body, throwing the black-haired young woman in a spiraling arc towards the snake's black head. "Lata, get ready to catch her!" Kaimana said loudly, his voice rattling with the effort.

Angelica pulled the secondary trigger on her sword, causing the rear-facing barrel to erupt with Wind and adding to the momentum of her spin. She held down the trigger, and her rotation speed increased exponentially until she was little more than a black and white blur. Her sword cut through the injured snake head's neck like a buzz saw, decapitating the first of the Primordial Taijitu's twin heads.

Lata extended one of her Gamble Vines towards the spinning huntress-in-training, catching Angelica's leg in mid-spin mostly be luck. Lata tugged on the vine, halting Angelica's spin and pulling her back to the group.

"That's one down," Phoenix said, smirking as he glared at the Grimm's remaining head. Angelica landed next to him, and stumbled, her head swirling from side to side as she groaned.

"We shouldn't do that again," Angelica mumbled, then clenched her teeth together and clasped a hand over her mouth, her eyes watering. "I think I might throw up," Angelica muttered through her hand once the worst of her dizziness had passed.

"Kai, keep Angelica safe," Phoenix said, walking towards the Primordial Taijitu, the bells of his ancestor's staff chiming rhythmically with each step. "Lata, you're with me."

"What's the plan?" Lata asked, hustling to catch up with him and then matching his stride.

"Same as before, but with a garrote instead of Angelica and Kai," Phoenix said, glancing at Lata as the Taijitu's remaining head lifted itself from the ground and shook the rubble off of itself. "You got any vines sharp or thick enough?"

"The Gamble Vines should work," Lata said with a smirk, raising the bulb she held in her left hand. "They're tougher than I thought they'd be."

"Then let's do this," Phoenix said, smirking at the Primordial Taijitu as it roared at them, black smoke spilling from its white mouth. One of the chains on his robe lit up white, and he swung his staff at the snake-like Grimm, white mist pouring forth from the circle of wood atop the staff. The mist condensed into large chunks of ice, and the glow coming off of Phoenix's robe changed from white to green as he let go of the Ice Dust and switched to Wind, firing the projectiles at the creature with another swing of his staff.

Though the ice did little more than distract the Grimm, that was enough; Lata was able to get in close, having run towards the snake's massive body the moment Phoenix's chain started to glow. Yellow vines extended from her right hand, wrapping around the snake's neck as it tried to lunge at Phoenix. The vines ruptured around the beast's neck as it slammed its head into the ground where Phoenix had been, the momentary resistance of the vines having been enough to throw it off.

The light coming from Phoenix's robe changed again, the green chain losing its glow as three chains lit up red. Flame spilled from the end of Phoenix's staff as he thrust it at the Primordial Taijitu, turning from red to green as it hit the flammable sap and then to white as the vines' fruits exploded.

The Grimm roared in pain, black smoke shooting from the center of the flames in a geyser and clearing the flame away from it; it turned, never ceasing its outpouring of smoke, and roared angrily at Lata. She had the presence of mind to cover her mouth and nose with her hands as the Primordial Taijitu's smoke rushed around her and threw her at Kaimana and Angelica.

Phoenix growled at the Grimm as Kaimana caught Lata, brandishing his ancestor's staff angrily. "Lata!" he shouted, gesturing at her with a tilt of his head.

"Right!" Lata said with a smirk. "Kai, throw me! Don't spin me, though!"

"Got it," Kaimana grunted, picking up Lata by the back of her jacket. His cybernetic arm whirred as he threw the red-haired medic, the twin SMGs in her shield flashing as she fired them to give herself the angle she wanted.

"Phoenix!" Lata shouted as she rocketed passed him, a thick green vine extending from the bulb in her hand and wrapping around his staff. Multiple chains on Phoenix's robe began to glow, green and red light pouring from him as he gripped two elemental Dust types at once. Flame spurted from his feet as chaotic wind whipped around him, throwing his hood from his head and freeing his long, blonde hair; with the two elements combined, he was able to throw himself forward, just as Lata had been thrown by Kai.

The two airborne members of Team PLKA shot to either side of the Primordial Taijitu's head, the vine trailing between them catching on its neck. However, instead of slicing through the Grimm's weakened scales like they'd thought, it merely knocked it back and pulled it to the ground, Phoenix and Lata colliding almost comically in the air behind it as the vine caused them to spin around the Grimm's head.

Angelica and Kaimana acted quickly, with Kaimana throwing Angelica up into the air by her jacket; once there, she was able to use her Demon's twin shotgun system to send her sailing down at the Grimm, flames trailing from the blade as she clove through the Primordial Taijitu's neck and the Gamble Vine with her sword as she slammed into the ground. Angelica stumbled as she stood up, sheathing her sword as she walked over to where Lata and Phoenix had shakily stood up themselves.

"Your plan needed work," Angelica commented, grinning at Phoenix as he and Lata leaned on each other for support.

"Yeah, I can see that now," Phoenix said sarcastically, drawing a giggle from Lata and chuckles from Angelica and Kaimana, who had started running over to them the moment he had thrown Angelica.

"What now?" Kaimana asked.

"Now, we go down," Phoenix said, taking a step forward and falling onto his face as he overbalanced. "On second thought," he mumbled into the dirt and snow, "maybe we should rest for a minute."

"Good call," Lata said with a chuckle, sitting down next to Phoenix and resting her feet on his back; his only protest was a muffled grunt. "I need to check if that Grimm's smoke did anything to us."

"Ugh, another physical?" Angelica muttered, rolling her eyes as she sat down as well. "At least tell me I can keep my top on for this one."

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

"What was that noise?" Phoenix asked himself, calling his team to a halt by raising a fist into the air. After resting for an hour, they had started jumping down the mountain, letting their Aura absorb the shock of their impacts with the ground. They had made good progress so far; only half an hour had passed since they started, and they were already halfway down the mountain.

The noise Phoenix had noticed was not a noise so much as a deep rumbling coming from the mountain, a slight tremor beneath their feet. Angelica's eyes widened as the tremor grew more intense, and she drew her sword, shouting, "Get ready for trouble!"

Moments after her shout, the ground erupted around them, and dozens of Creeps and the goat-like Grimm from yesterday poured forth from the holes they left behind. Lata's shields tore through the Creep that emerged next to her almost instantly, then she turned the SMGs they contained at the smattering of Capras surrounding her, ripping them to pieces; likewise, Kaimana's cybernetic arm proved more than sufficient for taking out the Capra Grimm, whether it be by smashing craters into their flanks or blowing up the holes they emerged from. Phoenix put his ancestor's staff back to work, a brief surge of Dust from his robe growing a razor-sharp icicle nearly a foot long at its tip, letting him cut and stab into the Grimm as they tried to overwhelm the team, and Angelica had wormed her way into the bulk of the emerging horde, her Demon flashing as she swung it in wide arcs, killing every Grimm in her path.

"How many of these things are there?!" Lata shouted, using one of her remaining Gamble Vines to slam one of the Capras into a cluster of Grimm, launching up dirt, shards of stone, and swiftly dissolving pieces of Grimm.

"Too many!" Angelica growled, twisting her body to bisect a Creep just at the edge of her range. Using her weapon's secondary fire, she turned the haphazard movement into a powerful spin, cleaving through nearly a dozen Grimm that weren't fast enough to avoid her blade.

An explosion rocked the ground beneath the team's feet as one of Kaimana's grenades found one of the emergence holes that the Grimm were pouring through, sealing it with rubble and likely killing any Grimm that was still inside of it.

Phoenix grit his teeth as the battle wore on, his arms beginning to ache as he continued swinging his staff, bashing, skewering, and occasionally slicing through the Grimm around him. The horde of Grimm seemed endless, and fatigue began to set in as Team PLKA fought for their lives with nowhere to run.

As the horde of Grimm seemed like it was finally beginning to thin, one last grenade round from Kaimana sealing the final emergence hole, the mountain began to shake again, and the team braced themselves for more Grimm even as they continued fighting. Lata was the first to notice that the quake beneath them was not like before, when the Grimm were burrowing towards them.

"Avalanche!" Lata shouted, knocking a Creep away from her and jumping into a narrow cleft in the side of the mountain. Angelica and Kaimana followed suit, finding a jagged strip of stone jutting out of the mountain to stand on. Phoenix was not so lucky.

When Lata shouted, Phoenix had looked up the mountain, his eyes widening with shock and fear as he saw the mass of snow and stone tumbling towards him. He attempted to follow Angelica, but the Capra he'd been fighting slammed its horns into his side, knocking him off balance and throwing off his jump. He landed in a heap, only barely managing to stand back up before the avalanche took him and the Capra off of the side of the mountain.

"Phoenix!" Angelica yelled, watching as her team's leader and her best friend disappeared beneath the mass of rock and snow. "Oh no," Angelica mumbled, still staring at the spot she'd last seen him.

"Angelica," Kaimana said, gently yet firmly. "Aura was strong. Odds are he'll be alive at the bottom."

"Right, right," Angelica said, shaking her head as the scene replayed itself in her mind.

"What happened?!" Lata shouted, shoving at the mass of rock that had covered the small cleft she'd ducked into. "Guys, help!"

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

Phoenix's eyes shot open as he woke up. Small streams of light showed him that he was buried in a pile of rock and stone, and the fatigue he felt reminded him of just how battered he'd be if not for his Aura. He tried to move his hand, but found that he couldn't; for a brief moment, Phoenix feared that he'd lost it, but then he realized that he could still feel it, as well as the rather sharp stone on top of it.

Brown light streamed from one of the chains on Phoenix's robe, and he flicked his tongue at the stones in front of him; it was an odd thing to do, he realized, but he had grown used to moving while using Dust, and feared that his willpower alone wouldn't be enough to do it (which, he realized, was probably another reason why he couldn't). Stones shifted slowly in front of him, and sunlight shined directly onto his face, making him squint as he looked out of the pile of rubble he was half-buried in.

The mostly dissolved corpse of a Grimm was in front of him, also partially buried beneath rock and snow. Phoenix blinked before he realized that it was probably the Capra that had caused him to get caught in the avalanche in the first place. Heartless Trees towered over them, and the mountain the two of them had been knocked off of was conveniently framed by the small gap in the black leaves.

"Must not have been out that long," Phoenix mumbled to himself, then flicked his tongue at his arm, using the Earth Dust sewn into his robe to free it. He gestured with his now free hand at his other arm, swiftly freeing it, and then at his legs, only for his Dust to give out on him. "Oh, come on," Phoenix moaned, attempting to draw on the Earth Dust again as he gestured, only for nothing to happen.

Phoenix sighed, then slowly began shifting the rock around him with his hands. He had only barely managed to free his waist when he heard a growl coming from behind him; turning his head and twisting his body, he managed to see a Beowolf standing on top of some of the rubble behind him, its eyes glowing red behind the bone-like plate on its face.

Phoenix reacted instantly, hurling a Dust-conjured fireball at the Grimm. The orb exploded against the beast's chest, ripping it apart in a cloud of choking grey smoke. Phoenix coughed as he tried harder to free himself, only now realizing what a good target he made for the Grimm of the Bleeding Forest.

He'd only managed to free his legs to his knees when another growl caught his attention, and he looked up, catching Hendricks's staff laying on the ground out of the corner of his eye. He didn't notice it, of course, as there were more than a dozen Beowolves standing in front of him, lead by a massive Alpha that was nearly fourteen feet tall.

Phoenix's mouth fell open, and his eyes began to water. "That's not fair," he muttered, watching the Grimm stand there and watch him as if waiting for something. Phoenix closed his eyes, then sighed, pulling his violin out from its holster by sheer instinct. "I'm sorry, Lata," Phoenix muttered, drawing his bow, as well. "I'm sorry, Robin."

Phoenix placed Scordatura over his shoulder, and began to play, drawing on his Semblance as music, both beautiful and sad, rose from his violin. As he felt his Aura begin to bleed from him, he pulled it back and held it in, tears leaking from his eyes as he grimaced; he didn't want to make these Beowolves harder for his teammates to fight once he'd died, after all. As he played, Phoenix heard a bird's shriek and the Beowolves in front of him growl and roar; he flinched, assuming it was a Nevermore, and kept playing, hoping that his heart would give out before the Grimm had time to cause him too much pain.

As Phoenix finished playing his song, he realized that he had lived long enough to finish playing the four minute long piece. He frowned, his eyes still closed, and found that he was still gripping his Semblance. Now thoroughly confused, he opened his eyes, and gasped at what he saw in front of him.

A miniature Nevermore, nearly three feet from the tip of its wickedly sharp talons to the top of the green bone-like plate on its head, perched on the stone in front of him. Its red feathers, tipped green on its ten-foot-long wings, seemed to shine in the sunlight, and it looked at Phoenix with pride and a touch of pity in its eyes. The slowly dissolving corpses of the Beowolves surrounded it.

Phoenix's mouth was stuck open for nearly a full minute as he watched the bird. "Thank you," Phoenix managed to mumble at last, ducking his head gratefully at the bird. It let out a cry, musical and wondrous, then bobbed its head up and down before it dissolved into red dust. Phoenix blinked in confusion as the dust flowed into Scordatura, seeming to phase into the woodwork of the violin, and a small, red, wing-shaped mark appeared on the lower bout.

"Was that... my Semblance?" Phoenix asked himself, still staring at the space the bird had been. "But, I have a Semblance."

"Rally is something special, isn't it?" the masculine voice came from behind Phoenix, and he stiffened as he recognized it.

"Douglas," Phoenix growled, twisting his body to face his distant cousin. Douglas had a smug grin plastered on his face, his hands placed on his hips, as he looked down at Phoenix from his perch on a tree's branch.

"Of course, all inherited Semblances tend to be rather versatile," Douglas continued, humor in his eyes as Phoenix started trying to free himself from the rubble pinning him. "And most of them hold the ability to summon our past victories."

Phoenix snarled at Douglas, raising Scordatura and taking aim at the former cult leader. He fired, but the Dust mixed into the paint on Douglas's breastplate began glowing blue as he raised his hand, and a floating current of water appeared in front of him, deflecting the shotgun's blast to the side.

"Now, that was just rude," Douglas said, pouting at Phoenix. "Here I am, trying to get you to learn a bit more about our Semblance, and you're taking shots at me? I might need to teach you some manners, brother."

"Why?" Phoenix asked, glaring at Douglas and lowering his weapon.

"Well, because you're a bit rude," Douglas said, humor sparking in his eyes again.

"No; why are you trying to teach me?" Phoenix growled, his own eyes sparking with rage.

"Because we're family!" Douglas exclaimed, dropping down from his perch. "And family looks out for each other. Especially when they want something from each other."

Phoenix growled again, raising Scordatura to take another shot at Douglas, who merely laughed at the pinned huntsman-in-training.

"Let me just say my piece, okay?" Douglas asked, smiling amicably. "I've got to assume that Bright has told you what I am."

"Who?" Phoenix asked.

"Oh, did Angelica change her name?" Douglas asked, raising an eyebrow. "That explains why I couldn't find her. Oh well; that's not exactly relevant right now. I want you to join me."

"What?" Phoenix asked, taken aback by the request. "Why would I ever do that after what you've done to my friends?"

"Well, I could just say we're family and leave it at that, but something tells me that wouldn't be enough for you," Douglas said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "So, let me tell you exactly what I plan on doing; I'm going to become the villain of the piece."

"What? Why?"

"To unite the world against me, of course! If I become a big enough problem, a bad enough monster, then every little petty problem the kingdoms are facing will seem just tiny by comparison! I've found a way to use our Semblance to control the Grimm, giving me the biggest, baddest army around. In a month, I can have all five thousand Grimm of the Bleeding Forest under my command, and marshal them to march north to Beacon, picking up however many thousand Grimm are between here and there to add to my army."

"Why?!"

"By starting the war to end all wars, by definition, there won't be any more wars!" Douglas exclaimed, grinning again as he stood proudly over Phoenix. "That is my goal: to stop the in-fighting once and for all!"

Phoenix opened his mouth to speak, but couldn't find the words, so he settled for shaking his head, dumbfounded. "What about everyone living in Beacon?" Phoenix asked after a moment, looking back at Douglas with a fire in his eyes.

Douglas waved his hand dismissively. "A sacrifice for the greater good. And it's not like Beacon's this shining monument of all that's good; Beacon's a rat's nest of criminals, including more than one hub for the White Fang."

"I..." Phoenix said, shaking his head. "I guess they were wrong," Phoenix said, sheathing his weapons and looking down at the ground.

Douglas chuckled, taking a step towards Phoenix and sweeping his hand, a small brown crystal lighting up in his hand as the rubble surrounding Phoenix's feet was cleared. "I knew you'd see things my way if I just explained myself."

Phoenix shook his head, his eyes hardening beneath the shadow of his hood. "You're not crazy," Phoenix said softly before looking back up at Douglas. "You're freaking insane!"

Multiple chains lit up on Phoenix's robe, green and red and white mixing into a cacophonous rave of color. Chunks of ice shot from his hands like cannonballs, flames whipped around him and lashed out at Douglas, and wind roared around him, turning the rubble surrounding him into a rather lethal miniature tornado.

Douglas dodged everything with ease, only using his Dust to conjure water against Phoenix's fire. He ducked and twisted his body, avoiding the ice and rubble with the same flexibility he'd displayed when fighting Kaimana and Angelica, and his whip lashed out multiple times, carving through particularly large rocks like a burning sword through butter.

When Phoenix let up on his assault, Douglas was standing in the same place he'd started, one eyebrow raised at the robed young man. "Is that it?" Douglas asked, sighing in disappointment. "Maybe it's better that you're not with me. You wouldn't last long at my side."

Phoenix smirked, raising his hand towards Douglas. "I'm just getting warmed up," Phoenix said, the red and white glow of his robe fading away and only leaving the green left. The tinkling of bells sounded behind Douglas, and he turned his head, only to catch the bottom of Archibald Hendricks's staff in the side of his face, knocking him away from Phoenix as the wooden weapon flipped into the younger man's hand.

Phoenix rapped the staff against the ground, sending the bells tinkling again with just enough sound to let him activate his Semblance. He poured his Aura inwards, like before, and red began glowing from the chains on his robe again, fire and wind swirling around the circle atop the staff until they coalesced into the same bird from earlier, flames trailing from its wings and tail feathers as it screeched in rage. The miniature Nevermore flew directly towards Douglas, who was not expecting the sheer speed it displayed; it slammed into him beak first, picking him up with its momentum and sending him flying away from Phoenix before it circled back to hover over the younger man.

"Phoenix!" Lata shouted, landing near the still pinned leader of Team PLKA. Her eyes glistened, rage and hatred shining through them as she glared at Douglas. "The others are on their way."

"Thanks, Lata," Phoenix said, smiling at the redhead. Phoenix turned back to Douglas, his smile hardening into a smirk as his chains once again lit up, green light spilling from him as he swept his staff towards Douglas, sending a crushing gale of wind at the older man.

Douglas stabbed his hand at the rushing wind, the paint on his breastplate glowing blue as he sent a trio of drilling streams into the younger man's Dust attack. The water did almost nothing to weaken the wind, but they were enough to deflect the blast to the side and crash into the treeline, sending ash-white wood, black leaves, and red sap flying as it tore through the Heartless Trees..

Distracted by Phoenix's attack, Douglas didn't notice Lata's extended vines wrap around his left arm and leg. She lifted him with ease, using the strength of the Gamble Vines to slam him into a tree with enough force to put a small dent in it, blood-red sap oozing from the crushed bark. Douglas snarled and drew one of his whips in his right hand, snapping it at the twin vines and cutting through them easily with the sharp metal spike his whips were tipped with.

Phoenix wasn't slouching while Lata was holding Douglas off, however; he sent his conjured bird at the man with a twist of his staff. The crimson feathered bird shrieked as it flew, flame trailing from its wings as it slammed into Douglas's chest, pushing him straight through the tree. Douglas landed on his back behind the tree as it fell, but was able to turn to momentum into a roll and put himself back onto his feet. Douglas growled in his throat at the two huntsmen-in-training, but an explosion beneath his feet knocked him even further away and left a mass of blue smoke where he'd been standing.

"Sorry we took so long," Angelica said as she came into the clearing at a run, drawing her sword as she charged Douglas. She took a swipe at the man, but he dodged easily, lashing out at her with his whip. She twisted her body, just barely dodging the attack, and swung again, this time hitting Douglas and knocking him back. He slammed into yet another tree and grit his teeth in anger, fury shining in his green eyes as he saw Kaimana fire another grenade round at him.

Douglas's whip lashed out and bisected Kaimana's grenade round, sending the two halves around him. As the grenade exploded behind him, sending blue powder up in two clouds, Douglas said, "No more games," and drew his second whip. He jumped, easily clearing the distance between him and Kaimana's perch in one of the trees, and slashed out with both whips, hammering the cyborg with multiple hits in less than a second.

Phoenix sent a gale of wind at Douglas and Lata turned her SMGs on him, but he dodged out of the way, the paint on his breastplate glowing blue again as he sent nearly a dozen thin streams of pressurized water at Kaimana, who just barely managed to activate his Semblance in time. The jets deflected from his skin and clothes, as well as the metal of his cybernetic arm, carving deep trenches into the trees and ground around him.

Kaimana loaded another round into his arm as Douglas backed off, avoiding the attacks from the rest of Kaimana's team. As Douglas snarled at Angelica, who stuck her tongue out at the older man as she dodged yet another of his lashes, Kaimana fired, the round breaking apart into two dozen small metal balls as it left his arm. The grape shot round collided with Douglas's chest, sending him to the ground, but he rolled almost effortlessly out of the hit, only to get hit by Angelica's swing again.

Douglas took the hit, a plan emerging in his mind as he rocketed backwards from the sheer strength of Angelica's attack. He twisted in midair, planting his feet against the tree his back would have hit, and rebounded off of it, using his Aura to spread the impact out as far as he could over the surface of the tree so that instead of shattering, it bent. As it bent back towards Team PLKA, Douglas used his Dust again, sending twin streams of pressured water from each of his feet to give him even more momentum.

Douglas shot from the tree like a missile, his whips dancing around him almost faster than his eyes could keep up with. His flurry carved through the tree Kaimana was standing on, and landed enough hits on the cyborg to knock him away from his team. Kaimana landed hard on his chest, and felt a brief moment of panic pass through him as he realized that his Aura was almost completely drained.

Douglas snarled down at Kaimana, lashing his whip at the young man one last time before he left. The bladed tip carved through Kaimana's coat easily, and drew a groan of pain and shock from the downed cyborg. Douglas smirked maliciously as he kept moving, running away from the team from the time being.

"Is he gone?" Phoenix asked after a moment, beads of sweat forming on his forehead. Another moment passed, and Phoenix sighed in relief, his shoulders sagging as the adrenaline from his near constant fights began wearing off, leaving him fatigued. He turned to the still burning bird as it landed on the ground next to him. "Thank you," he said, watching it dissolve into dust again.

"What was that?" Angelica asked, raising an eyebrow at Phoenix as Lata jogged over to where Kaimana was lying.

"According to Douglas, it's..." Phoenix began, only to get cut off by Lata's gasp of horror. "Lata? What's wrong?!" Phoenix asked, running over to her with Angelica close behind him.

Douglas's last attack had opened a long gash down Kaimana's back, blood oozing from the split flesh. "Oh, god," Lata muttered, her hand instantly dipping into one of her pouches for medical supplies. "Kai, are you awake?" Kaimana grunted, shifting his arms in an attempt to get up. "Stop!" Lata exclaimed, firmly planting a hand between his shoulders. "You're not bleeding too much right now, but if you move like that you could bleed to death!"

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Angelica asked Lata, her eyes pleading.

"No," Lata began. "Wait, maybe: Phoenix, have you ever given stitches before?" Lata asked, glancing at her team's leader.

"No!" Phoenix said, his face going pale as he looked at Kaimana. "I... no."

"I'll coach you through it," Lata said reassuringly, pulling a small canister out of one of her pouches.

"I don't..." Phoenix said, closing his eyes and shaking his head. "I can't."

"Phoenix, calm down," Angelica said, placing both hands on Phoenix's cheeks and turning his head to face hers. "You're the only one here who can use a needle, and Kai needs help."

"I don't..." Phoenix said, flashes of Grimm and a bleeding young girl appearing in front of his eyes. His breathing picked up as he saw her curly auburn hair, her violet eyes, and the angular point of her chin. "I..."

"Please!" Angelica exclaimed, slamming her forehead against Phoenix's in an attempt to knock him out of his flashback. "You said that you didn't want anyone to die like Robin ever again, right?!" Angelica asked, giving him another headbutt. "Then save Kai!"

Phoenix stopped breathing for a moment, and the image of Robin in his eyes slowly morphed into Kaimana. "Right, right, right," Phoenix said, shaking his head free from Angelica's hands. "Lata, can you give Kai a painkiller?" he asked, pulling out his needle, thread, and scissors.

"Already doing it," Lata said, smearing a thin pink paste over Kaimana's bleeding wound.

"Okay," Phoenix said, taking a deep breath as he looped the thin string through the needle's eye. "Let's do this."

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

The fire crackled in front of Phoenix, thin lines of smoke rising from it almost hypnotically. He looked down at his hands for a moment, looking at the blood covering his shaking fingers, then shook his head. "No, I'll be fine."

"Phoenix," Angelica said gently, glancing to the side of the cave where Lata was changing Kaimana's bandages. "It's nearly sunset, and you haven't eaten anything since this morning."

"I'm not hungry," Phoenix said, his voice quiet and monotonous, as he stared into the fire.

"Then at least clean the blood off of your hands," Angelica said, frowning sadly at him. "It's not healthy."

"I'll be fine," Phoenix repeated.

"You aren't fine, Phoenix," Angelica said softly. She sighed, shaking her head. "What's wrong?"

"I was able to save Kai," Phoenix said. "I don't... maybe I could have saved Robin."

"No," Angelica said. Phoenix's gaze turned to her, and she flinched at the dead look of his eyes. "Robin was already bleeding out, Phoenix. Even if Lata had been there to help you, she would still have died."

Phoenix remained silent, but turned his eyes back to the fire.

"Kai is alive," Angelica said. "He's alive because Lata told him to hold still, because she could coach you through giving him stitches, and because I was there to fight off the Grimm while you two worked on him. It took all of us, and we weren't all there to help Robin."

"Hey," Lata said, tapping Angelica on the shoulder and making her jump. "Why don't you go keep Kai company for a minute, okay? I'll stay with Phoenix."

Angelica frowned, then sighed, nodding her head as she stood up. She walked over to Kaimana as Lata took her place at Phoenix's side, throwing the blonde's hood over his head as she sat down.

"Can you tell me about her?" Lata asked softly, drawing Phoenix's attention. "Some happy memory that you two shared?"

Phoenix continued to stare into the fire, but, after a moment, he spoke. "Robin had a younger brother," Phoenix began, not noticing Lata's small, sad smile. "The first time I met him, Robin and I had only been dating a few weeks. He didn't like me at first, but Robin told me that he'd come around eventually. I tried to get him to like me because I thought it would make Robin like me more, but after a month, I gave up." Phoenix let out a sigh, shaking his head, before he continued. "I just gave up. I didn't tell Robin; I thought she'd stop liking me if I did. The next time I saw Sparrow, he was being picked on by a bunch of bullies a couple years older than him.

"I didn't like him, but I knew that I would like myself even less if I didn't help him," Phoenix continued, a small smile lighting on his lips, although his eyes didn't show it. "So, I stepped in. I'd already gotten a bit of Huntsman training from my father at that point, so I took a few hits and basically scared them into running away when I kept getting back up." Phoenix chuckled, and Lata smiled as well when she saw his eyes brighten just a bit. "Apparently, Sparrow told his parents that I was 'the coolest guy in the whole world'. At least, that's what Robin told me. We kissed for the first time after that."

Lata giggled, smiling at Phoenix. "Do you know how Sparrow's doing?" Lata asked gently.

Phoenix nodded. "He's doing pretty well, actually. He wants to become a Huntsman, actually, to make sure no one else has to lose their family."

"Wow, that's mature of him," Lata said, nodding her head approvingly.

"Yeah," Phoenix said, still smiling as he shook his head.

"Well, how about I tell you a story about me?" Lata asked softly, wrapping an arm around Phoenix's shoulders and placing her other hand on his knee, though he didn't notice. "It was a few years ago, back when I'd just started working as a nurse. I was still getting used to the job, and to not being hyper-aware of my emotions all the time. One of the older nurses saw how nervous and paranoid I was, so she decided to teach me a bit about medicine. She'd quiz me on everything she taught me, and on a few things she thought I'd have picked up from my time spent in the hospital."

Lata chuckled, then turned her head to the ceiling as she smiled. "One time, I got every question she asked me right, and she threw in a few really tough ones at the end. She was proud of me, and I was so happy that I'd managed to impress her; she actually bought me a present after that. I still have the books she bought me, although..." Lata blushed and looked away from the ceiling, instead choosing to look out at the forest. "Some of them are a bit more... 'adult' than I was ready for."

"What were they?" Phoenix asked, a spark of humor in his eyes as he looked at the blushing girl.

"U-um..." Lata stammered, regretting having wrapped herself around Phoenix. "The f-first two b-books in the _Ni-Ninjas of Love_ series."

Phoenix let out a low chuckle, glancing over his shoulder at a very confused Angelica. "Well, if you ever want those autographed by the author, just ask Angelica."

"Wh-what?" Lata asked, still stammering.

"Yep," Phoenix said, his smile turning into a full-blown grin. "She wrote them, after all."

"What?!" Lata exclaimed loudly, making Angelica even more confused. Kaimana began to chuckle, as he'd heard the entire conversation thanks to his excellent hearing, which only caused Angelica to grow even more confused.

"What just happened?" Angelica asked, frowning at each member of her team in turn.

"I'll tell you later," Phoenix said, standing up and pulling his hood down, revealing his face to Angelica (as Kaimana and Lata could already see it, due to their special Faunus dark vision). "For now, we need to prepare for tomorrow. Lata, will Kai be able to fight by then?"

"I can give him a double dose of medicine, but he'll eat like a pig and sleep like a log," Lata said, gesturing to the kettle she'd pulled off of the fire some time ago. "He won't be able to take a watch tonight if he does."

"Is that fine with you, Kai?" Phoenix asked, drawing a nod from Kaimana. "Great. Get ready for that, then. Angelica," Phoenix said, his mind already pulling pieces of information into a coherent plan, "is there anywhere we can fight Douglas that'll give us the advantage?"

Angelica blinked, then sprang into motion, pulling her maps out of her pocket and unfolding them in a blur. "Yes, I think so," Angelica said, smoothing out the maps as she compared them. "There's a wide inlet just to the west of August that would give Kai a huge advantage against Douglas, assuming we can get him out there. It should have little to no cover, too; since Douglas really only has his... Water Dust... oh, damn, that might not work, then," Angelica finished with a frown.

"It'll work," Phoenix said. "I've got some Water Dust, too. I might not be as good with it as he is, but I should be able to keep him from using the ocean to his advantage."

"If you're sure," Angelica said uncertainly, "then okay, I guess so. He doesn't seem to have anything for range other than his Water Dust, so we'll have an advantage if we can get him out into the open."

"Fantastic," Phoenix said, smirking. "Okay, here's the plan so far: I'm going to use some of my Wind to yell a challenge to him from the middle of the forest. Something like 'meet us at the coast in three hours' or something; I'll work on that part some more. Anyways, we'll also call in our airship to meet us there a few minutes later; with any luck, we'll be in the middle of fighting Douglas when our support gets there to help."

"How's the airship going to help us?" Lata asked with a frown.

"Pilot's a Huntress," Kaimana said, stacking ration bars in front of him. "Airship's equipped with heavy machine guns, too."

"Okay," Angelica said, nodding. "But aren't you forgetting something? Douglas isn't going to show up alone; he's going to Rally up an army of Aura-enhanced Grimm to help him, and if that light show with that weird bird of yours gave him any ideas they'll be Dust-enhanced too."

"Yeah, what was with that thing?" Lata asked as Phoenix cupped his chin in his hand.

"We'll just have to make any improvements we can in the meantime," Phoenix said with a shrug. "You still want those vine bulbs sewn into your sleeves, Lata?"

"Don't avoid the question, Phoenix," Lata said, pouting at her team's leader.

"Turns out there's more to Rally than I thought," Phoenix said, shrugging again. "Summoning that bird is just something I can do. Oh, and Douglas implied that it was something that he could do, too, so that'll be something to look out for."

"Did you name it yet?" Lata asked.

"No. Why?" Phoenix asked, looking at Lata curiously. "Did you have something in mind?"

"Ooh, how about Bennu?" Lata offered, making Phoenix chuckle and nod.

"I guess that's its name, now," Phoenix said, running a hand through his hair, only to wince at how greasy it felt beneath his hand. "So, do you still want those vine bulbs in your sleeves, Lata?"

"Yep," Lata said, smiling at Phoenix. She winced, then added, "I think you might want to wash off that needle before then, though."

"And your hands," Angelica said, throwing a disgusted look at Phoenix's hands, which were still covered in Kaimana's blood.

"Yes, yes," Phoenix said, one of the chains on his robe glowing blue as he conjured water into his hands and slowly rubbed away the dried blood. "Do you think there's anything you can do to make your weapon better, Angelica?"

"Actually, I do have one idea I've been kicking around for a while," Angelica said, her tone becoming that which women use when they want something from a man but don't want to ask him. "But I just haven't had a chance to pick up a Fire crystal, and my infusion kit is back in our dorm room."

Phoenix snorted and rolled his eyes, unclasping his robe with his wet hands and pulling out a thick red crystal of Dust. He tossed it to Angelica, who caught it with a grin in her eyes and a polite "Thank you." He then fished out a small box, in which was everything someone would need to grind up Dust, and tossed it to her as well.

"I can probably get this done before we retire for the night," Angelica said with a smirk, drawing her weapon from its sheath and settling it over her lap.

"That's good," Phoenix said, pulling a pair of ration bars from one of his pockets as he closed his robe, the magnetic clasp holding it shut. "Because we're going to need someone to stand watch over us while we work tomorrow."

"Huh?" Angelica asked, looking up from her sword.

"Lata's not going to be able to fight all that well while I'm working on her shields," Phoenix explained. "Kai needs his rest tonight, and I want him making as many explosive rounds and scatter rounds as he can manage once he gets up. We'll need someone to keep us safe while we work, so that falls to you."

"Got it, captain," Angelica said, giving Phoenix a sarcastic salute with three fingers.

Phoenix rolled his eyes, then said, "Okay, team! If everything goes well tomorrow, this'll be our last night in the Bleeding Forest! Let's rest up and make the most of it!"

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

Well, that was a fun chapter, wasn't it? From heart disease to a potentially fatal injury, Team PLKA sure has gone through some bad times. But hey, things are looking up, right?

Right?

If Phoenix's plan comes to pass the way he thinks it will, that means the next chapter will be the last one. But I'm sure most of you know that, in fiction, a plan fully explained will always fall apart before the end.

Of course, I'm just the type of person who'll try to subvert that trope. Of course, my telling you that could mean that I won't subvert it. Of course, now this chain has become circular, and means that I could do just about anything. Heck, I might introduce a sea monster type of Grimm just for the fun of it!

Until next time!


	6. Chapter 6

Welcome back, everyone, to the last chapter of this story!

Do you remember a few chapters ago, when I said there would only be five characters? Well, I lied. In this chapter, you'll find two more characters, bringing the story's total to seven. Oh, well.

Also, you have no idea just how vindicated I feel knowing that, in the last few episodes, we've seen that Mercury is a cyborg and that the White Fang have the ability to deploy Grimm onto a battlefield. I know that they've been writing it for a long time, and that my story can't have possibly influenced them, but I can't help but feel a bit proud of myself; at the very least, I feel proud that I managed to guess these little bits of story that came up.

Well, let's get back on track. Last chapter, here we go!

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

[Fallen Giant Inn; 1:00 P.M.]

 _"Hey, are you there?"_

The static-filled voice coming from the radio was the first thing that Yin heard that morning. Well, morning's a bit of a stretch, but she still felt that it was a bit too early for her.

 _"Come on, Yin, pick up already. I know you're there."_

Yin groaned, sitting upright, causing the hotel bed's sheets to fall off of her chest, exposing her loose-fitting purple chemise. She swept a hand through her bedraggled hair, which was also purple, and shifted in the bed, letting her clumsily reach out to the nightstand next to her bed and grab the radio. She placed it next to her ear as she blearily opened her eyes, one a soft shade of blue and the other a rather harsh shade of red. "What?" she asked around a yawn.

 _"Geez, Yin, were you still asleep?"_

"Shut up, Lata," Yin grumbled, falling back against the bed as she spoke into the radio. "You need something?"

 _"Yeah, actually,"_ Lata said, ignoring Yin's grumpiness. _"We're going to need your support today. We've got some big things going on down here, and we're gonna bring them to a close. You in?"_

"Don't have much of a choice," Yin muttered, yawning again as she closed her eyes. "So, what'd you need?"

 _"Well, everything you know about Douglas Bay would be a good start,"_ Lata said, almost nonchalantly.

Yin's eyes snapped back open, and she looked at her radio with a bewildered expression. "You're kidding me," Yin said, groaning as she sat back up and got out of the bed. "You found the time to go after a bounty? And not just any bounty, but the number three bounty in the entire world?"

 _"Geez, is he really that big of a deal?"_ Lata asked, her tone somewhat sarcastic. _"And here we've been kicking his butt hard enough to make him take us seriously."_

Yin groaned again, massaging her forehead with one hand as she set the radio down on her room's desk. She sat down in the somewhat uncomfortable swivel chair that sat in front of the desk, then turned on the computer atop it. "Alright, I'm going to do some digging," Yin said, picking the radio back up and speaking into it. "Give me a minute."

 _"What do you mean? Don't you know all this already?"_

"Contrary to popular belief, we Huntresses aren't encyclopedias," Yin grumbled dryly into the radio, her other hand alternating between slowly typing on the keyboard and manipulating the mouse. "We have to do research to learn the stuff we need to know, most of the time."

 _"Sorry, sorry,"_ Lata said, mollified. _"Do what you need to do. I'll wait."_

It didn't take long for Yin to get to the bounty boards. With a few clicks of the mouse, she had multiple tabs open, each one showing information about Douglas Bay. "Okay, I've got something," Yin said, picking the radio back up. "Says here he's originally from Vacuo, has multiple charges of murder and... brainwashing. Huh. He favors using Water-based Dust over his two whips, called Wombwell and Amburgh. Why is that listed? That doesn't seem very useful."

 _"Yin?"_ Lata asked, somewhat meekly. _"Don't want to hurry you here, but..."_

"Yeah, yeah," Yin muttered, continuing to read. "Says here his Semblance is used to increase the strength of his allies. Do you know if he has any in that forest with ya'll?"

 _"Only the Grimm he's been taming,"_ Lata said, making Yin freeze. _"And we already knew most of that."_

"Oh, damn!" Yin snarled into the radio, fear and anger mixing in her eyes. "Why didn't you say that sooner?! I can get a team of Huntsmen down here in three days to help out!"

 _"In three days, Douglas will have an army of Aura-capable Grimm under him,"_ Lata said, making Yin freeze again. _"My team's leader has the same Semblance as him, so we know a lot about it."_

"Then why did you call me?" Yin growled, rubbing her forehead in a halfhearted attempt to ease the headache she was feeling.

 _"Phoenix, my team's leader, has a plan. There's a small inlet off the western coast of this abandoned city in the middle of the forest; we're planning on fighting Douglas there, and we're hoping we could use you as support,"_ Lata said, making Yin groan as her headache seemed to get worse.

"Damn it, girl, don't just drop all of this on me at once!" Yin grumbled. She sighed, then said, "Okay, so you've got a plan. When do you need me?"

 _"We were hoping you could be there in about four hours,"_ Lata said. _"We're gonna try to get him there a bit earlier than that, and we know we're gonna have to fight a whole bunch of his Grimm beforehand, so we'll want you to help us with him."_

Yin sighed again. "I'm hoping against hope here, but... you didn't happen to finish your actual mission, did you?"

 _"We've got the Staff and the Ring, but Douglas has the Statue,"_ Lata said, making Yin groan. _"So this is kinda mission critical."_

"Damn it," Yin muttered, dropping the radio to cradle her head in both hands. "I need a drink."

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

[Bleeding Forest Cave; 10:15 A.M.]

"So, what do you think?" Phoenix asked Kaimana, who was looking at his coat with a chagrined expression. Phoenix had offered to fix the tear that Douglas had left down the back; unknown to Kaimana, "fixing" the coat involved removing quite a bit of material and stitching the sides inwards to give it a regal sort of look.

"Why?" Kaimana asked, making Phoenix shake his head and sigh.

"The cut wasn't directly down the middle," Phoenix explained. "Any stitches I made would have been visible, so I decided to make a couple of adjustments to prevent that. I know it's not quite the same, but look at the bright side: your tail will have a much better range of movement, and I threw in a bunch of the Water Dust that I had left."

Kaimana grunted, frowning at his coat for a full minute before he finally sighed. "It'll do."

"I was also able to use the material I took out to make you a glove, but it didn't turn out too well," Phoenix said, grimacing as he offered the patchwork fingerless glove to Kaimana. The stitches used to hold together the thick blue cloth that had once been part of his coat were very prominent, and shimmered faintly with purple Dust. "I did take the liberty to add some of that new Dust I was working on last night, though, so what it lacks in style it'll make up in practicality."

"You know," Angelica trawled, looking at the glove from her seat near the entrance to the cave as Kaimana grudgingly took it from Phoenix, "I was thinking about introducing you to my brother while you were working on Kai's coat; you know, letting the two of you trade tips on stitching and sewing and the like. But after seeing you make that glove, I probably won't."

Lata giggled as Phoenix pouted at Angelica, his hood for once not concealing his face in shadow. "I'm good at adding designs, but when it comes to actually making something new... well, I don't have a lot of practice at it," Phoenix said, trailing off with a grimace.

"Aw, poor Phoenix," Lata cooed as she played with her Gamble Vines, four of which had been stitched into her jacket's sleeves courtesy of Phoenix. "You'll get better with practice, just like everything else."

Phoenix sighed, then flinched as one of Lata's vines trailed gently over the back of his neck. He looked back at it in horror, and shuddered as Lata giggled. "That's not cool, Lata," Phoenix mumbled, blushing and fighting the urge to tug on his hood. "I just gave you a whole bunch of Lightning Dust, and this is how you repay me?"

"Eh?" Lata asked, tilting her head to one side. "You expect me to pay for these?"

Angelica gave Lata an odd look as Phoenix said, "That's... no. It's a figure of speech."

"Oh!" Lata exclaimed, withdrawing her vine with a blush of her own. "I-I mean, I knew that!"

"Anyway," Phoenix said, sweeping his bangs out from in front of his eyes. "Is everyone up for today?"

"Oh, yeah," Angelica said, smirking as she ran a hand along her Demon's blade. Kaimana grunted and nodded his head, but his eyes were shining maliciously with the thought of giving Douglas a beat down.

"I'd like to give Kai's wound another look," Lata said, raising a hand. "You know, just to make sure he's ready to fight."

Kaimana sighed, but sat down with his back facing Lata all the same, already topless due to not wearing his coat. His canine tail, its fur the same shade of brown as his hair, whipped back and forth erratically, but it wasn't able to cover the length of freshly formed scar tissue that ran down his back. Lata grimaced when she saw it, as did Phoenix, but Angelica turned away, looking out at the forest with a light blush on her face.

'Just my luck,' Angelica thought with a half-hidden smile as Lata stooped to apply ointment to Kaimana's scar. 'I finally get a boyfriend, and my best girlfriend gets to rub his back and caress his scars before I do.'

Phoenix raised an eyebrow as he saw Angelica giggle soundlessly to herself, looking into the distance without focusing on anything in particular. He merely shook his head and rolled his eyes, muttering "Pervert" under his breath.

"It looks like you'll be alright as long as you don't bend it too much," Lata said, half-mumbling as she carefully tapped her fingers against Kaimana's scar. She sighed, then stood back up. "If we weren't out in this stupid forest, I'd tell you to get at least a few days of bed rest, but I guess you'll have to deal with taking another dose of medicine and getting as much rest as you can."

Kaimana grunted, standing back up with a wince as the muscles in his back tugged on his scar.

"I should probably give you a painkiller, too," Lata mumbled, fishing around the medical supplies and satchels of herbs and seeds in the pouches she wore on her belt for one vial in particular. "Oh, damn it!" she swore under her breath once she pulled it out. "I thought I had more than this. Sorry, Kai, but you're gonna need to tell me if you want this now or later."

"Hm?" Kaimana asked, raising an eyebrow at the red-haired medic.

"I only have enough for one dose, and a small one at that," Lata said, grimacing at the small glass vial she was holding. It wasn't even half full of a viscous white liquid, and held a small label that had the letters "PK" on it. "Do you want it now, or do you want to wait so that it'll kick in for the fight?"

Kaimana stood silently for a moment, before finally shaking his head. "Now," he said simply, wincing again as he turned away from Lata so that she could apply it to his back. He shivered as she dumped the vial's contents onto his back, then grit his teeth as she gently dragged her fingers through it and over his scar.

"So, Angelica," Phoenix began, sitting down next to his best friend at the mouth of the cave. "Can we talk?"

"Sure," Angelica said, glancing over her shoulder at the pair of Faunus behind them. "Do you want to go somewhere private, or...?"

"We don't have to," Phoenix said, shaking his head. "This is about the plan for the fight."

"Okay," Angelica said, drawing out the word as she looked at Phoenix, noting with some shock that she could actually see his face beneath his hood; usually, it was covered with shadow, but today he wore the hood in a much more lax position that let the sunlight hit his face and hair.

"I know you want to beat Douglas down more than any of us," Phoenix began, pausing when Angelica tensed up next to him. "Hear me out, alright? I know you want to hurt him, but I need you to fighting any Grimm he brings along with him."

"Why?" Angelica asked quietly, her voice harsh.

"Because you're a lot better at fighting a bunch of enemies than you are at fighting just one," Phoenix said bluntly. "And Douglas... well, it almost seems like he picked his strategy to beat you, specifically. His whips have better reach than your sword, he can attack faster with them than you can, and his Dust completely negates yours."

Angelica growled softly, glaring at Phoenix. "So you want to sideline me while the rest of you fight him?"

"No," Phoenix said, shaking his head as beads of sweat formed on his forehead. After everything that had happened over the last few days, he'd almost forgotten just how scary Angelica could be. "Lata will be helping you, too. With the two of you keeping the Grimm off of us, and me keeping Douglas from fighting effectively with some Wind, Kaimana should be able to take him down."

Angelica kept silent, continuing to glare at Phoenix, who was now sweating profusely. After a moment, she sighed and turned her head back to the forest. "Fine," she grumbled. "But I'm not happy about it."

"I'm not asking you to be," Phoenix said, relieved, as he wiped the sweat off his forehead with his sleeve. "I can make it up to you once we get back to Beacon. In fact, why don't I treat all of us once we get back?"

"Hm?" Angelica asked, turning her scowl back to him as she raised an eyebrow.

"Tomorrow, when we're all back at Beacon, we can all go out and have some fun," Phoenix said, somewhat timidly. "Let's see... if I'm right, then the Vytal Festival Tournament will be entering the last few rounds tomorrow. We can see about getting tickets as members of Beacon, but I'll pay if we can't. I'll even treat everyone to dinner. How about it?"

"You? Pay for someone else?" Angelica asked dryly, raising an eyebrow. "Who are you and what have you done with Phoenix?"

Phoenix snorted, rolling his eyes. "I know, but, well, I am the team leader," Phoenix said, starting to mumble halfway through his sentence. "If we're going to catch the tournament and a meal as a team, then it's my responsibility to pay for you."

"That sounds like fun," Lata said, plopping herself down next to Phoenix and leaning against his shoulder. He gave her an odd look, but other than that he ignored what she was doing. "Ooh, can we go to that barbecue joint? You know, the one near From Dust Till Dawn?"

"Sounds good," Kaimana chimed in, leaning against the wall next to Angelica and startling her.

"Well, Angelica," Phoenix said, reassured by the rest of his team agreeing with him, "you want to come with us?"

Angelica chuckled, then said, "Sure. I'm in."

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

[City of Recluse, Fallen Giant Inn, sixty miles east of the Bleeding Forest; 3:00 P.M.]

"I'm telling you, these kids are gonna be the death of me," Yin said with a sigh. She lifted her glass to her lips and drank, careful not to let the amber fluid spill onto her dark purple blouse or her black bell-bottom trousers. She finished off the drink and sighed, setting the glass upside down on the table in front of her; there were two other empty glasses like it, though neither was from Yin.

"Probably not," the woman across from her said, sipping at her own drink. She wore a dark green tank top, letting the tattoo on her shoulder, a trio of arrows tipped with green flame, show itself to the world, and a pair of very short black shorts which left her cybernetic legs completely visible; other than that, she wasn't wearing anything, not even shoes. "After all, my protege is on that team."

"Right," Yin said, sighing again. "And he built your legs. For free."

"He's smart for a kid," the other woman said, nodding her head and causing her short green hair (with one blue highlight) to cover her green eyes temporarily. "He probably knew that I was a high-class Huntress and that I'd want to teach him a few things in return."

"High-class?" Yin scoffed, signaling to one of the waitstaff to get her another drink. "Rei, you were fresh out of Beacon and went one of the Big 5 on your own. If you think you were high-class, then I must be a goddess in your eyes."

"Yeah, a goddess of lame," Rei joked, drawing a chuckle from Yin. "Seriously, though, Mana's team is better than most. He's strong enough to arm wrestle an Ursa Major with his real arm and win, and he's got that cannon in his cybernetic, too. As for his team, well, I may have down some research on them once I heard about them."

Yin snorted derisively, handing a pair of folded bills to the waiter who brought her a new drink. "You always did like to know everything."

"Oh, shut up," Rei grumbled, rolling her eyes. She took another sip of her drink before continuing. "His team's got a medic, which you rarely see anymore these days; apparently she's got some sort of plant Semblance that let's her make crazy good herbal remedies. The other girl on the team is short, but her sword's nearly as big as she is, and she's gotta be at least as strong as Mana with how fast she can swing it. As for their leader, well... you remember hearing about that explosion on Patch a few years ago?"

"Yeah. What about it?" Yin asked, sipping at her drink.

"From my very reputable sources," Rei began, waving her hand dramatically in front of her.

"I wouldn't consider Professor Qrow a reputable source," Yin said, interrupting her former team leader.

"Shush, you," Rei said, pouting. "Fine, from Qrow. He told me that it was part of a training battle between that Yang girl who's been on the news and Mana's team leader. Apparently, they weren't allowed to use Dust or their Semblances after that, and they still managed to top their class in practicals!"

Yin sighed again. "They're still rookies, Rei. And, what's worse, they're gonna take on one of the Big 5 in that damn forest a ways west of here."

Rei froze, her drink halfway to her mouth. "What?" she asked flatly, lowering her drink as she stared unblinkingly at Yin.

"Douglas Bay, the Beast Tamer," Yin said, taking another sip from her own drink. "They've got some kind of artifact retrieval mission out there, and he's got one of the things, so they're gonna fight him, and they expect me to be there as support."

"When?" Rei asked, alarm flashing across her eyes.

"About two hours from now," Yin said, glancing at a clock hanging on the wall of the inn's bar.

Rei sighed, relieved. "Good," she said, grinning at Yin. "That gives me time to get Fett."

"What?" Yin asked, raising an eyebrow at Rei.

"I'm going with you!" Rei said exuberantly, her eyes shining with determination. "And I won't take no for an answer!"

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

[Bleeding Forest Cave; 11:00 A.M.]

"Hey, Angelica?" Lata asked hesitantly, glancing over at the mouth of the cavern where Phoenix and Kaimana were having a conversation of their own. "Can we talk? In private, I mean?"

"Huh?" Angelica asked, looking up from her partially disassembled weapon and raising an eyebrow at the nervous medic. Small parts surrounded the shorter women, having come from the various mechanisms in the Demon's twin shotguns, and a thin red crystal of Dust poked out from the exposed brick of the sword's hilt and guard, a shimmer of green flashing across its surface as it caught the firelight. "Sure," Angelica said after a moment, carefully extricating herself from the various metal parts around herself as she stood up.

"...just a pinch of Fire in the mix. You don't want to overdo it or it won't give you the effect you want," Phoenix was saying as Lata and Angelica starting walking out of the cave. "Wait a minute; where are you two going?" Phoenix asked, noticing the two young women on his team leaving.

"We're just gonna have a little chat," Angelica said, smiling at Phoenix and Kaimana. "Girl talk."

"Not without a weapon," Phoenix said, looking over at Angelica's sword.

"I've got my shields, Phoenix," Lata said, wincing as Phoenix turned his gaze to her. "And my Gamble Vines. We'll be fine."

Phoenix looked at them for a moment before sighing. "How important is it that you have privacy for this?" he asked, sounding defeated.

"More than a bit," Lata said, chewing on her lower lip.

"Alright," Phoenix said, nodding his head. "Kai, we can keep talking shop outside."

Kaimana grunted, following his team's leader out of the cave a fair distance before they finally stopped to continue their discussion.

Angelica chuckled, smiling at the two of them before turning to walk back into the cave. "So, what did you want to talk about?" Angelica asked, grabbing Lata's hand and leading her back into the cave.

"I..." Lata began softly, looking down at the ground and tugging her hand out of Angelica's grasp. She took a deep breath, then looked back up at Angelica, determination burning in her eyes. "I want to confess to Phoenix before we leave."

Angelica winced, frowning. "I don't think that's a good idea," Angelica said slowly, making Lata growl softly.

"Why not?" Lata asked, consciously reaching to restrain her emotions. It wasn't her condition; she had taken her medicine nearly half an hour ago.

"I told you before, I just don't think it's a good idea to start a relationship in this forest," Angelica said, shaking her head.

"That's not good enough for me anymore," Lata said, closing her eyes and folding her arms over her chest to the best of her ability, since she was wearing her shields. "You were right about Douglas; he's a monster. What he did to Kai..." Lata trailed off, looking to the side with a grimace. "I've never lost anyone. I don't want to know what it'd be like to lose someone before I..." Lata trailed off again, shaking her head.

Angelica placed a hand on Lata's shoulder, trying to soothe the emotional young woman. "Lata... there's another reason I want you to wait," Angelica began, swallowing at the lump forming in her throat. "I hate myself for it, but..."

"What?" Lata asked softly, looking back at Angelica.

"The day that Robin died, she told me that she was planning on proposing to Phoenix," Angelica said, making Lata gasp and clasp her hands over her mouth. "I told her everything I could think of to get her to stop; 'you're too young, you're still in school, it's the man's job to do that'. But... she refused to accept anything I said, saying that her love was more important.

"I wasn't there for what happened to her," Angelica said, closing her eyes as she felt a tear run down her cheek. "I don't know if Phoenix even knows. But I can't let him lose anyone else, especially not the way he lost her."

"Angelica..." Lata mumbled, drawing the shorter girl into a deep hug.

"I don't know if I'm keeping him from learning something that'll make his depression even worse, or just not digging up painful memories," Angelica muttered, hiding her eyes against Lata's shoulder. "He deserves to know, but... I don't have it in me to tell him."

Lata merely hugged Angelica tighter, remaining silent as the raven-haired angel wept for the fallen.

Kaimana winced outside the cave, glancing over at the pair of women; Lata had severely underestimated his hearing. Phoenix was biting his lip, wanting to run in and break the tension, but he knew that probably wouldn't be for the best. "What are they saying?" Phoenix asked quietly.

"They're talking about Robin," Kaimana said softly, keeping an eye on Phoenix to gauge his reaction.

Phoenix looked down at the ground and sighed. "Angelica knows, doesn't she?" Phoenix asked, pulling a small silver ring out of one of his pockets. Kaimana winced when he saw it, looking away. "I always wondered. She was Robin's best friend; it makes sense that she'd know," Phoenix muttered, fingering the ring in his hand as he turned his gaze to the cloudless sky.

"Are you okay?" Kaimana asked, looking back at Phoenix.

"Honestly?" Phoenix asked, chuckling darkly under his breath. "I don't know; used to be when I thought about Robin, it felt like my heart was gonna rip itself to pieces. Now, I just feel a bit sad."

"This forest is... strange," Kaimana said, drawing Phoenix's mind back to him. "Only our sixth day here, but it feels like months."

"Yeah," Phoenix said, slipping the ring back into his pocket as he nodded. "We've only been here a few days, but we've... I don't know, grown up?" he said, his tone forming a question. Once Kaimana nodded, he continued, saying, "I don't like it. Something must be wrong here on a fundamental level to get that sort of effect."

"Phoenix," Kaimana began, only to take a deep, calming breath. "I've got something important to tell you about Lata."

"Oh?" Phoenix asked, cocking his head to one side. "What's that?"

"She likes you," Kaimana said, making Phoenix blink in confusion. " _Likes_ you, I mean. In _that_ way."

"Oh," Phoenix said, his eyes widening in surprise. "Wait, what? Why?"

Kaimana snorted, glancing over at the two young women who were still talking in the cave, although they looked much happier than they had been. "Dunno," Kaimana said, shrugging. "Never understood women enough to figure that out."

Phoenix chuckled, shaking his head. "Me neither," he said, only to frown once the moment had passed. "What should I do?"

"Up to you," Kaimana said, wincing as he noticed his voice beginning to show signs of strain; this was the most he'd talked in a long time, and he was not used to it. "She's planning on asking you out on the way back to Beacon. You should make up your mind by then."

"Thanks for telling me, Kai," Phoenix said, smiling weakly and patting the taller man on the shoulder.

"Just one thing," Kaimana added, clasping his cybernetic hand over Phoenix's and looking him dead in the eye. Phoenix swallowed nervously as he met Kaimana's eyes, seeing the fire burning within them. "Lata's like a sister to me. You hurt her, and you might need a few new limbs."

"G-got it," Phoenix mumbled, frightened.

"Good," Kaimana said, smiling at the musician. "They're done with their talk now," Kaimana said, once again shifting the conversation as Angelica sat back down next to her disassembled weapon.

"R-right," Phoenix said, taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself down. In that instant he'd locked eyes with Kaimana, he'd seen the cyborg's darkness, and it scared him more than he knew.

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

[Bleeding Forest Cave; 1:45 P.M.]

"There is one more thing we can do," Lata said quietly as the team sat morosely around the small fire they had built and ate what could very well be their last meal. "I mean, that I could do."

Phoenix sat his spoon into the bowl resting on his lap, the remnants of his vegetable soup already growing cold. "What do you mean?" Phoenix asked, making Lata bit her lower lip. "I thought we were as prepared as we can get."

"I..." Lata began, then sighed, setting her own bowl off to one side. "I wouldn't offer this in any other situation, but... I know a mixture that can permanently increase a person's Aura by nearly fifty percent."

"What?!" Angelica exclaimed, nearly knocking over her second helping of the stew. "Why didn't you tell us?!"

"Because it... it's not healthy," Lata said, desperately trying to put together the explanation. "It's made with plants like savin, and may lily, and nightshade! If I make it wrong, we could all die! And if I make it right, we'll still lose part of our lives!"

"What do you mean?" Phoenix asked, cocking his head to the side and debating within his thoughts whether or not he should put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her.

"At the correct mixture, this... extract will strengthen the Aura of the... imbiber," Lata said meekly, tripping over her words. "But, it takes a toll on the body. Just drinking it will boost your Aura immediately, but after about six hours you'll feel fatigued, and most likely pass out; then, the toxins will eat away at your Aura. If your Aura is as strong as it can be, you can live through it without any ill effects, but... we won't be that strong. We'll be coming off of the toughest fight we're likely to face in our lives. The odds of us dying because of this are higher than I'd like, and the best case scenario is us losing a few years off the end of our lifespans," Lata finished quietly, cementing the rather somber mood that had fallen over the team.

"I'll take it," Kaimana said after a moment, surprising the team. "We're Huntsmen; if we live to forty it'll be a miracle. Not living to ninety is something I can live with," Kaimana said, chuckling halfheartedly at his accidental joke.

"I agree," Angelica said, smiling weakly at Lata. "If this helps us get through this, it's more than worth it."

"But..." Lata began, looking between the two of them. "This could end up killing us!"

"Not if we prepare," Phoenix said, smiling proudly at the druid. "You made me that... potion, I guess, to replenish my Aura before, right? Can't you make a whole bunch of it, then store it for us to use after the fight?"

Lata stared at Phoenix with her mouth hanging open, wondering why she hadn't thought of that. "I... yes, that could work," Lata mumbled, but then she shook her head. "But it would only keep it from killing us outright. It can't be taken all at once, and it's not a ton of help at regenerating an Aura that's being actively harmed."

"It's not ideal," Phoenix said, nodding his head, "but, if it can help us beat Douglas and his Grimm... I think it'll be worth it."

Lata met Phoenix's eyes, hoping to find some inkling of doubt, but found only warmth and trust within them. She swallowed nervously, then nodded, saying, "Okay. I'll do it. But I'll need you to thoroughly wash out the kettle before and after, Phoenix!" Lata said more firmly, making him chuckle and nod. "I mean it! Cross-contamination here can result in all of us getting killed!"

"Okay, okay," Phoenix said, raising up his hands in supplication. He chuckled again, then said, "So, I'm guessing that I should also wash out those empty canisters you've been using?"

"Eh?" Lata asked, cocking her head to one side.

"The ones that you've been drinking your medicine out of," Phoenix clarified, taking that moment to ladle some of the leftover soup into his bowl. "You know, so that we can put the Aura restoring potion into them?"

"That's not a bad idea," Angelica noted, scraping her spoon against her own bowl to get the last drops of stew. "All of us can carry some of it; heck, if there's extra we can use it during the fight with Douglas."

Lata sighed, then started sorting through her pouches. "I've got eleven empties so far," Lata said, pulling out one of the finger-sized canisters and frowning at it. "I'll have to brew an extra-strength version of it if we want to use these things, though."

"Okay, so there's enough for most of us to carry three," Phoenix said, looking around at his team. "Anyone want to volunteer for only having two?"

"Me," Kaimana said, setting his empty bowl to one side.

"Kai, you've got the hardest job out of all of us," Angelica said, worry showing in her eyes. "You'll need that third potion more than I will."

The cyborg shrugged, saying, "Won't have time to drink any if I'm fighting Douglas. Might as well have one less."

"Um, there's one other thing," Lata mumbled, drawing the team's attention back to her. "Back when I was fifteen, and knew Douglas as Doctor Bay, he made me make it for him. That's how I know how it works, and why he looks so old."

Phoenix sighed, then chuckled quietly. "So, we're not gaining an edge; we're just fighting him on equal terms?" Phoenix asked, smirking up at the roof of the cave. "No wonder he's so tough. But it makes me wonder... just how much of his Aura is he giving the Grimm?"

"He might not be giving them any," Angelica said, getting Phoenix to look at her. "I mean, his Semblance might not be much like yours anymore. You've only got one common ancestor, and that was so far back; if inherited Semblances can change over time, it wouldn't make sense for your Semblances to be exactly the same."

"Or maybe," Lata offered, glad for the change of subject, "you can use your Semblance without throwing your Aura into it. I mean, most Semblances don't use Aura like that, so why should yours?"

Phoenix cradled his chin in one hand, chewing on his bottom lip. "I'll have to think about this," Phoenix said, shaking his head. "But now's not the time to be experimenting with my Semblance."

"Right," Lata said, picking up Phoenix's backpack, which contained most of their cookware, and setting it in front of him. "You need to start washing, Phoenix."

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

[Bleeding Forest Clearing; 4:30 P.M.]

"Is it time yet?" Angelica asked, beginning to grow impatient as Phoenix stood still, leaning against a tree.

"Almost," Phoenix said, looking up at the sun. "Another few minutes should be enough."

"Good," Angelica said sullenly, folding her arms over her chest.

"Say, Angelica," Phoenix began, drawing her attention back to him. "Doesn't it feel like we've been here too long?"

Angelica frowned, raising an eyebrow at her team's leader. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, doesn't it feel like we've been here longer than just a few days?" Phoenix asked, causing Angelica's frown to deepen.

"Now that you mention it," Angelica said, looking at the trees around them suspiciously, "yeah. It almost feels like we've been here for months, but... that can't be right... Can it?"

"I'm not sure," Phoenix said, shaking his head. "But Kaimana agrees that it feels longer than it's been."

Angelica sighed, looking up at the sky. "There must be something wrong with us," she said moodily, watching a cloud slowly drift across the otherwise clear sky.

"Or with this forest," Phoenix offered. "This place is more than just its trees, after all; otherwise, why would they bleed?"

"So, what are you saying?" Angelica asked, looking back at Phoenix. "That something's up here?"

"I don't know," Phoenix said with a sigh, glaring at one of the trees. "But I'm not sure I want to find out."

Angelica nodded her agreement. "So..." she drawled, bringing one hand up to the hilt of her sword. "Is it time yet?"

Phoenix chuckled, then nodded, pulling his hood over his head so that it concealed his face with shadow. "Yeah, I guess it is," Phoenix said, taking a deep breath. "You might want to cover your ears."

"Why?" Angelica asked, only to see one of the chains on Phoenix's robe light up grey. She hurried, pressing her hands over her ears as Phoenix began to Shout, his voice enhanced by the Wind Dust he was channeling.

" **Douglas Bay!** " Phoenix shouted, his voice carrying all the way to the other side of August. " **You want the Staff? You want the Ring? Well, we want the Statue! Meet us at the inlet west of August in one hour, and bring the Statue! We'll be there, with the Staff and the Ring, to take it from you!** "

"Ow," Angelica muttered, glaring halfheartedly at Phoenix as the light of his Dust dimmed and faded away. "Hey, you wanna try that again? I can still hear a little in this ear," Angelica grumbled, tugging on her left ear.

Phoenix chuckled, only to be interrupted by a roar coming from behind them. The two huntsmen-in-training spun on their heels, drawing their weapons as they did, to see more than two dozen Beowolves behind them, led by an Alpha that was nearly twenty feet tall at the shoulder.

"Well," Angelica said, rolling her shoulders as the Beowolves slowly spread out in a half-circle in front of them. "That was quicker than I thought."

"You thought this would happen?" Phoenix asked, sparing a quick glance at Angelica as he prepared to play his violin.

"I thought we'd be attacked on the way to the beach," Angelica said, running a hand along the length of her sword, triggering the Dust contained within and causing Flame to spew forth from the guard and flow along the blade. "Not right off the bat."

"Ah," Phoenix said, one of the chains on his robe lighting up red as he drew on the Dust in the stitching. That was the last thing he said before the fight, as one of the smaller Beowolves charged at him; it was swiftly met with a fireball to the chest, scorching through its black fur before it exploded and left a crater the size of a basketball in its torso. The dead Grimm slumped to the ground, already beginning to dissolve, as the rest of its pack charged.

Angelica charged to meet them, her Demon spewing flame as she swung it into the first Beowolf she got to. She clove through its thick fur and hide without resistance, as well as the one behind it; she continued to swing, spinning on her heel occasionally to keep her momentum going as she slew more than a dozen of the Grimm in less than five seconds.

Phoenix, meanwhile, was spending the time playing a quick little song on his violin, just long enough to activate his Semblance. He felt his Aura attempt to leave him, but he kept hold of it, forcing his Semblance to do the only other thing he knew it could: Summon. With one final flourish of Scordatura, and a flare of red light from his robe, the miniature Nevermore that Angelica had decided to name Bennu flew from the small insignia it had left on the violin, trailing flame from its wingtips as it screeched and dove into the battle against the Grimm, slashing at the Beowolves with its burning wingtips and slamming its beak into the gut of one that managed to get close.

Another roar sounded behind Phoenix once he set loose his summon, causing him to turn around just in time to dodge the massive paw of the Ursa Major that decided to take a swing at him. He snarled, the red light on his robe fading as another chain began glowing grey; he swung his bow in an arc at the ursine Grimm as he flipped away from its follow up, sending a blade of compressed air ripping through the beast's spiky body. As it dissolved, Phoenix saw the sheer mass of Grimm behind it: Beowolves, Ursa, Creeps, as well as the stronger forms of them, totaling nearly fifty in all; there was even a Death Stalker with them.

Phoenix sighed, but not out of resignation; his sigh was of relief, and his eyes shone with malicious determination as he gripped all of the Wind Dust he had, causing multiple chains on his robe to light up grey. He sheathed his violin and its bow, instead opting to use the staff of his ancestor, Archibald Hendricks, that he'd slung across his back.

As for why his Wind is now grey instead of green, well, Phoenix always was cheap. Green Wind Dust is only a tenth the price of the more heavily distilled grey Wind Dust, but isn't as powerful and doesn't last anywhere near as long as the pure grey variety. Luckily for him, Angelica wasn't cheap, and had fueled her sword's secondary fire with a massive crystal of grey Wind; when she decided to upgrade, she had little use for the crystal, so she passed it on to Phoenix, who was more than happy to accept it.

Phoenix swept his staff in an arc towards the mass of Grimm, sending a potent wave of hurricane level wind rushing at them. Most of the Creeps were dislodged from the mass and flung into trees, as were some of the Beowolves, though the rest of the horde was able to hold their ground. Adding a bit of Ice to the second sweep of his staff was all that it took to kill off the majority of the horde, leaving only the scorpion-like Death Stalkers and the three biggest Ursa Majors left alive.

Phoenix whistled, and Bennu soared passed him, trailing flame from its wings as it slammed itself beak-first into one of the Ursas, knocking it down; the miniature Nevermore rose up into the air, then flapped its wings, sending a surge of fireballs flying from its wings like a real Nevermore does with its feathers. The fireballs exploded haphazardly around the Ursa, not strongly enough to rip it apart but still strongly enough to kill it.

Angelica rushed passed him a moment later, jumping high into the air above one of the Death Stalkers and triggering the secondary fire on her sword, sending a tight rush of flame, like the engine of a jet, whizzing passed her own head and sending her into a tightly controlled spin down into the Grimm; her flame-sheathed Demon carved through the Grimm's carapace like it wasn't there, and she slammed feet-first into the ground beneath it as it split in half. She rose from her crouch, her sword still burning, as she grinned evilly at the other Death Stalker.

The other three Grimm fell just as swiftly, their swiftly dissolving corpses left behind as Phoenix and Angelica started running towards the beach, Bennu sailing on an updraft above them.

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

[Coast of August; 4:45 P.M.]

An explosion rocked the treeline, spreading ice filling in the destroyed wood and dirt almost before it could leave and trapping the Grimm it tore to pieces in a web of frost. Kaimana grit his teeth as he loaded another cryogenic round into his cybernetic arm, snapping the chamber closed just in time to backhand a Beowolf that got too close to him.

Beside him, a pair of thin green vines lanced out, impaling the head of a Creep that had been sneaking up on him. Green sparks of electricity flew from the vines as they ripped out of the Grimm and snapped back to their fellows, slowly tearing away at the King Taijitu that had crept up on them from the sea. "Careful, Kai!" Lata urged, worry showing on her face as she finally ripped the serpentine Grimm's second head off. "One almost got you!"

Kaimana grunted, flipping his cybernetic hand up on its hinge again and sending another explosive round at the horde of Grimm emerging from the treeline. There were so many that they looked like a solid wave of black mass, with Beowolves, Creeps, Ursas, and even the occasional King Taijitu charging out of the forest at their Faunus prey. The cryogenic round exploded in their midst, the blast wave ripping apart Grimm indiscriminately and sending a mass of blue icicles into those left standing; after a moment, ice spread from the point of impact, sheathing the displaced sand and dissolving corpses of Grimm in a layer of frost. He growled under his breath as he was forced to dive into melee with an Ursa Major without even reloading his arm's cannon, snapping his wrist back down on its hinge just in time to send an uppercut into the ursine Grimm's jaw.

"What's taking them so long?!" Lata grumbled, swinging and stabbing her electrified vines into the crowd of Grimm before they could overwhelm Kaimana, buying him enough breathing room to suplex the Ursa Major, crushing its head into the sand with enough force to shatter the bone plate on its face. Kaimana flipped back onto his feet, slamming his real hand, sheathed with a purple glow emanating from his stitched together glove, into the jaw of a Beowolf, producing an audible cracking sound as his fist crunched through its teeth, leaving it to crumble into a dissolving heap.

Lata raised her arms and her vines, then slammed them into the ground, producing an electrified shockwave that killed off nearly a dozen of the lesser Grimm in a single hit, and left another three dozen twitching on the sand of the beach. She grit her teeth, lashing out with the sparking vines to kill as many of the stunned Grimm as she could while Kaimana reloaded.

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

[Bleeding Forest; 4:45 P.M.]

"This is taking too long," Phoenix said, chopping the head off of a Beowolf with his bow. He was trying to conserve his Dust, knowing that he'd need it to fight Douglas before long, but he and Angelica were fighting their way through more than just a crowd of Grimm; they'd already killed more than a hundred in the short time they'd been traveling, and the ones they left behind were likely to catch up to them if they took too much longer. "We might not make the rendezvous."

"Go on ahead," Angelica offered, cleaving through a pair of Beowolves and an Ursa with a single sweep of her burning sword. "I'll keep these ones away from the beach!"

"Are you sure?" Phoenix asked, worried, as Bennu screeched and slammed itself beak-first into a Beowolf, flying straight through it.

"Yes!" Angelica yelled, gritting her teeth as she blocked a King Taijitu's attack, slamming her sword into its chin to deflect it away from her. "Now go!" she yelled, gleefully watching the snake-like Grimm's head raise up from the cluster of Creeps that she'd just caused it to kill.

"Yes ma'am!" Phoenix exclaimed nervously, whistling sharply. His whistle was enough to carry his Semblance to Bennu, who swooped back down to him and grasped its talons around one of his arms, tugging him back into the sky with it.

"Good," Angelica muttered, brandishing her sword threateningly at the fifty Grimm surrounding her. She sighed, shaking her head, and then charged into battle, sweeping her sword through the Grimm in broad arcs, occasionally spinning on her heel to keep her momentum. The Grimm died spectacularly around her, but they just kept coming, and slowly began to overwhelm her defenses.

Angelica grit her teeth as she cleaved the head off of the King Taijitu only to get tagged in the back by an Ursa Major, sending her flying face first into a tree. She pulled herself from it, her Demon spitting fire as she spun around, cutting through a pair of Beowolves that tried to take advantage of her moment of weakness. A screech behind her was all the warning she got before a Death Stalker slammed its claws through the tree, hitting her back again and sending her back into the group of Grimm.

'There's too many,' Angelica thought to herself, beginning to panic as she killed five Grimm in one swing and got hit again, knocking her onto her knees. 'Can I even do this? I'd need to see all of them to do this!'

Unknown to her, Angelica's panic was the key to her Semblance. She reached for it unconsciously, and it responded to her thoughts. Light began to form over her eyes, as usual, but then it rose above and away from them and extended into each other, forming a single bar of light floating above her eyes as she stood back up. The light kept growing, soon encircling her head in a thin halo of white light.

And Angelica found that she could see from it in a complete three hundred and sixty degree radius. Nauseous, she closed her eyes, and found that she could actually see better with her eyes closed than with them open, her nausea fading the instant her eyes closed. She grinned, spinning on her heel and chopping off the arm of a Beowolf that tried to sneak attack her.

"Come get some!" Angelica screamed at the Grimm, brandishing her burning sword as her halo brightened.

What? Did you think Litany was just a way to find Dust?

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

[Coast of August; 4:50 P.M.]

"There they are," Phoenix mumbled to himself, his arm still gripped by his flying Summon as he stared down at the beach where Lata and Kaimana were still fighting against a horde of Grimm. He looked up at the miniature Nevermore, then took a deep breath to prepare himself for the drop; all it took was a thought from Phoenix for Bennu to dissolve, returning to its place in Scordatura as Phoenix fell to the ground, three of the chains on his robe lighting up grey. When he landed, a massive blast wave of air emanated from him, toppling everything within twenty feet of him, even the Death Stalker he'd landed next to.

Phoenix got up quickly, extended his arms to his sides as the grey light from his robe was replaced by red; flame spewed from his palms, and he turned in a slow circle, scorching any Grimm that got near him.

Kaimana kept fighting, not letting up for a second, but Lata took advantage of the opportunity to drink one of the Aura rejuvenation potions she'd brewed earlier. She sighed in relief as she felt a sense of wholeness and well being from her Aura returning, and her eyes sparkled with renewed vigor as she jumped back into the fray, using her Gamble vines to impale and throw any Grimm she could and occasionally flowing Lightning Dust through her vines, electrocuting the few Grimm that she couldn't kill outright.

Kaimana slammed his cybernetic fist through the bone-like armor plating of a Creep's head, then grabbed it with his real hand as he withdrew his cybernetic and threw its dissolving corpse into a pack of its fellows, his glove glowing purple as he triggered the Gravity Dust its stitching contained to turn the dead Grimm into a lethal projectile. It bowled over the other Creeps, ripping off the limbs of three of them before skidding to a halt, throwing up sand.

"Hey, Phoenix!" Lata exclaimed, ripping through a pack of Ursa Majors with her electrified vines.

"Yeah?" Phoenix asked, glancing at her briefly as he shot a Beowolf in the chest with his violin.

"Would you, um..." Lata began, her moment of nervous hesitation coinciding perfectly with her skewering a Creep on one of her shields. "Would you like to see a movie when we get back?" Lata asked, shoving the Grimm off of her weapon. "Just you and me, I mean!"

"You mean... like a date?" Phoenix asked, feeling his face flush with heat that had nothing to do with the searing wall of Dust-conjured flame he'd put up between him and a King Taijitu.

"Yeah!" Lata said, swallowing nervously. "So... how about it?"

"I..." Phoenix began, also swallowing nervously. "I'd like that, I think."

A brilliant grin lit on Lata's face, and she rushed over to embrace Phoenix, only for a Grimm to knock her away. She growled, her eyes flashing with hate as she flipped in midair to land on her feet, her vines snaking out to impale the Beowolf that hit her.

Kaimana sighed and rolled his eyes, even as he slammed an Ursa headfirst into the ground. "Guess it's a good way to do it," Kaimana mumbled to himself, gritting his teeth as he stood back up and the muscles in his back tugged at his scar. "Better than right before a battle."

Though Phoenix and Lata fought harder than before, as they now knew they had someone they had to live for, Kaimana began to grow distracted as he began to wonder where Angelica was. He fought back the feeling, retreating beneath the calm he knew how to pull over himself as he continued to kill Grimm; his face hardened into a mask that he knew well, showing no emotion or thought.

Angelica took that moment to appear, jumping into the skyline from the treetops, her sword ablaze and her white halo shining brightly. She let out a shout as she dipped into a spin, letting the secondary fire of her Demon trail a blazing spiral of flame around her as she slammed it through a Death Stalker, cleaving the scorpion-like Grimm nearly in half. Kaimana's mask disappeared as he saw her, and a wide grin appeared on his face; it persisted even through getting slammed into the jaw by an Ursa's paw, his Aura blunting the impact into a bludgeon instead of letting its claws rip through his bone. He snorted off a laugh as he flipped back onto his feet, his eyes burning with determination as he ducked under its second swing and an uppercut to its chin hard enough to rip off its head.

Heartened now that all of them were there, Team PLKA pushed against the Grimm harder than ever before, thinning the herd until all that was left alive was a single Beowolf Alpha. It stood growling between them as they advanced, before finally deciding to attack Phoenix, who beheaded it with a single swing of his bow.

"Was that..." Phoenix began, panting and looking around him as the Beowolf's headless corpse slumped to the ground. "Was that all of them?"

Lata chuckled, leaning against him. "Looks like it," Lata said, giggling tiredly as Phoenix wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"Did I miss something?" Angelica asked, raising an eyebrow at the pair.

"Lata asked him out," Kaimana said, loading a grenade round into his cybernetic arm. "He said yes."

Angelica opened her mouth to speak, then closed it with an audible click as her teeth clacked together. She sighed, putting a hand over her face as she chuckled. "How many canisters do we have left?" she asked after a moment, checking one of the interior pockets of her coat. "I've got two."

"Same," Lata said, nodded her head as Phoenix checked one of the pockets on his robe.

"Three," Phoenix said with a smirk.

"One," Kaimana said, grimacing.

Angelica sighed with relief. "Good, so we still have plenty. I swear, having that poison putting a timer on us is nerve wracking."

"Oh, so Lata fed all of you that Aura booster of hers?" a voice that had become very familiar to them came from the treeline, and they turned as one to see a cocky Douglas Bay standing there, whips drawn and at the ready. "That's a real shame," he said, seeming disappointed and tired. "It just means you'll have to feel more pain before I finally manage to kill you."

"Douglas," Phoenix growled, shrugging Lata off of him for the moment. "Did you bring the Statue?"

"But of course," Douglas said, reaching into one of his pockets and pulling out a small metal statuette, depicting a beautiful white-haired woman standing with the aid of a cane but with her chin held high. She was wearing an uncolored dress that hugged her figure so tightly that it was almost obscene, and a sword rested in its sheath at her hip. "I should hope that means you've held up your end of the bargain?" Douglas asked as he tucked the miniature back into his pocket.

"Yeah," Phoenix said, sheathing his violin and bow before pulling the Staff off of his back. Kaimana unzipped a side pouch of his backpack and tugged on the Ring it contained, flashing the crystalline structure of the bracer to Douglas before hiding it away again. "So... this is it, huh?"

"Oh, brother," Douglas said, frowning at Phoenix in what could almost be called a pout, "it's not over quite yet. In all your fighting today, there has been one type of Grimm you haven't seen. Now, you must be wondering what I did with all of my Nevermores if I didn't send them against you," Douglas said, smiling amicably as the members of Team PLKA stiffened, readying their weapons. "Oh, so you figured it out?"

With that said, Douglas cracked one of his whips in the air, raising his Semblance around himself and displaying a mesh of blue lines flowing behind him. On cue, a mass of screeches flowed from the forest, almost overwhelming everyone there with the sheer volume of the sound.

"That was a bit much," Douglas mumbled to himself, rubbing at one of his ears as he glanced over his shoulder, missing the looks of fatigued awe on the faces of the teenagers in front of him as he saw his two dozen bird-like Grimm take to the sky, forming a semi-circle around the inlet. "Oh well," Douglas said, turning back to face the team with a smile, "it's like Grandpa always said: live and learn."

"Phoenix, what's the plan?" Angelica asked quietly, a deep, gnawing fear settling into the pit of her stomach. Of the four of them, only Kaimana and Phoenix had anything close to being a long range weapon, but Kaimana's needed to be reloaded after every shot and Phoenix's Wind was almost useless against a Nevermore if he didn't have something to throw at it.

"I..." Phoenix said, swallowing nervously as he looked at the Nevermores. "I don't know," Phoenix mumbled, taking a step back from the mass of bird-like Grimm. "I don't know," he repeated, attempting to steel his will and failing.

Douglas laughed heartily, as if all of this was nothing more than sharing a joke with a group of friends. "That's not all, brother," Douglas said, addressing Phoenix directly. "Or did you think that was the extent of my Semblance?" With one more crack of his whip, blue light began to bleed from his body, slowly coalescing behind him into a long, massive creature, its serpentine body bearing two short arms equipped with deadly claws and its reptilian maw practically overflowing with razor-sharp teeth. All in all, the dark blue beast was nearly twenty feet long, resting on its coiled lower body just behind its master.

"What on Remnant is that?" Kaimana asked, a calculated ploy on his part; he knew his comrades were still not used to him talking in complete sentences, and was hoping that it would be enough to break them of their fear.

"That... is a dragon," Lata answered, glancing briefly at Kaimana before turning her attention back to their enemies.

"Okay, so," Phoenix said, his eyes glowing with renewed determination as a small smirk played on his face. "The plan's the same as before; the only difference is that Bennu's gonna be gunning for the dragon instead of Douglas, and that Angelica and Lata are free to fight with the rest of us."

"What about the Nevermores?" Angelica asked, gritting her teeth as she renewed the flames on her sword.

" _We_ don't have to deal with them," Phoenix said, his smirk growing. "That's up to them," Phoenix said, pointing past the flock of Nevermores with his staff.

" _Damn, you guys really know how to party!_ " Yin's voice came through the radio clipped to Lata's belt, startling the druid. " _Hope you don't mind my bringing a plus one!_ "

As the twin machine guns on the airship kicked in, ripping through one of the Nevermores before it even knew the metal transport was approaching the inlet, a mass of flames leaped from the side of the airship. The flames faded as they neared one of the other Nevermores, revealing Rei with a wide grin on her face as she slammed a hammer kick from her cybernetic leg into the head of the bird-like Grimm, ripping it clean off; the metallic pack she wore on her back reignited, letting her zip out of the way of another Nevermore's attempt to bite her and scorch the bird's feathers. She twisted in midair, her jetpack granting her the momentum to crush the Nevermore's spine as she slammed both of her cybernetic legs into its neck.

"Rei?" Kaimana muttered, looking up at the Huntress as she slaughtered the airborne Grimm.

Douglas chuckled, smiling up into the air as the dragon behind him growled at the team's reinforcements. "Well, isn't that some excellent timing?" Douglas asked rhetorically, laughing under his breath and shaking his head.

"Let's go!" Phoenix shouted, drawing Douglas's attention back to Team PLKA as they charged, Angelica and Kaimana up front with Phoenix and Lata shooting off to the sides to support. The chime of the bells attached to Phoenix's staff was enough to trigger his Semblance, and the chains on his robe glowed red as a blaze of flame in the center of the hoop on the staff's end signaled Bennu's summoning. The miniature Nevermore rocketed over Kaimana's head, flames trailing from the tips of its wings as it slammed itself beak-first into the dragon's head, knocking the reptile's body away from Douglas. The dragon snarled and roared, pressurized water spouting from its gaping maw in a torrent at Bennu, who took advantage of its smaller form to dodge away, luring the serpentine beast away from the battle between their masters.

Douglas smiled amicably as he began to dodge the wild swings from Angelica and Kaimana, using the bare minimum of effort to avoid their attacks. He lashed out with one of his whips, wrapping it around Kaimana's leg and tripping him, only for one of Lata's vines to catch the cyborg, letting him deliver a wicked cross straight into Douglas's chin, knocking him back a good three feet. Douglas shook off the attack easily enough, his Aura catching most of the punch's kinetic energy, but he was caught off guard, a fact that Phoenix exploited by sending a wall of Wind crashing into him, slamming him back-first into a tree. Douglas snarled at Phoenix, only for Angelica's blazing sword to fill his vision; her swing hit him hard enough to push him completely through the tree, leaving a mass of airborne splinters where he used to be.

Douglas glared at the team of Huntsmen-in-training as they collected themselves, raw hatred and anger flashing through his eyes before being covered back up by his usual amicability. "Good show so far," Douglas said, a quick glance up into the sky telling him that the Huntresses were almost through with his Nevermores. "But, can you stand this?" he asked, smiling as he pressed a pair of buttons on each of his whips, detaching the whips themselves from the handles. He flipped one around in his hand, then held it below the other as brown and red Dust began to shine inside of each handle. Sand rose up from the beach beneath him and flowed into the handles, fusing together through the power of the Earth and Fire Dust they contained to form a pair of glass swords.

Douglas smirked as Angelica charged him again, crossing the distance between them in a quick trio of steps and bringing her flaming sword at him in a horizontal sweep. He placed one of his swords in the way, deflecting it at the cost of the blade as it shattered; he was quick to reform it, however, jabbing at Angelica with his other blade as fresh sand flowed up into the handle of his broken glass sword and fused together in a flash of heat. The Earth Dust of his swords continued to glow as he maintained his hold on the glass behind him and sent it rushing towards Phoenix in a flurry, forcing the bard to use a burst of Wind to deflect them and dissipate the traces of Earth Dust manipulating them.

That wasn't the only battle going on at the time, however; as Team PLKA squared off against Douglas and the two Huntresses took on the Nevermores, Bennu and Douglas's dragon were deep in a fight, flames trailing from the tips of Bennu's wings as it sent a barrage of explosive fireballs at the serpentine summon. The dragon twisted, avoiding most of the projectiles, and returned fire, spewing a razor-thin jet of water from its mouth. Bennu was only barely able to dodge, flying to the other side of the dragon and dropping close to the ground as it turned itself around, preparing to ram into the dragon again. The dragon spewed more water from its mouth, a much larger blast intended to knock the bird-like summon off course.

Bennu sheathed its body in flame as it sped through the air, colliding with the mass of water; it kept on flying, the Dust-conjured Water and Fire mixing into steam where they touched. Bennu pulled harder and harder upon the Fire Dust that Phoenix gifted to it when he summoned it as Douglas's dragon did the same with its master's Water. When the bird-like summon finally rammed into the dragon's underbelly, the cloud of steam had grown to conceal much of the ocean from the view of the other fighters and was so hot that it was actually damaging the two summons. Bennu shrieked and the dragon roared as they drew upon all of the Dust their masters had given them, Bennu in its attempt to give the dragon a lethal blow, the dragon in its attempt to survive.

Bennu ripped through the dragon's underbelly, flames trailing from the red bird's wings as the blue dragon's Water ran dry. The upper half of the dragon's body fell to the ground, its claws grasping ineffectually at the air as its body slowly dissolved into motes of blue light, Bennu circling above it tiredly as it watched its kill disappear. Once the dragon was gone, the bird returned to its master, dissolving itself into dust as it reached its home, Scordatura.

Rei and Yin were just finishing off the last of the Nevermores, the twin machine guns of Yin's airship ripping through one; the other was dropped thanks to a hammer kick from Rei. "That's the last of 'em!" Rei exclaimed, holding her Scroll up to her mouth as she grinned over at the airship. "Yin! Stay ready to take on any Grimm that come down; I'm gonna go support the kiddies!"

Without waiting for a response from Yin, Rei stopped using the Dust that fueled her jetpack, letting herself drop in an arc towards Douglas. As she fell, she raised her hands up behind her back, touching her jetpack and surging her Aura through the special Dust in its joints, causing it to separate down the middle. Rei grabbed the two halves of the jetpack, flipping them over her hands in a practiced motion and wrapping her fingers around the beams of Dust inside of each one, activating a mechanism that extended two pipes from the sides of each missile-like head.

Flame spewed forth from the rear-facing pipe of Rei's left guantlet, propelling her towards Douglas just as his sword shattered yet again due to an attack by Kaimana. She slammed her fist into his face, her strength combined with her momentum sending him flying away from the huntsmen-in-training.

"Booyah!" Rei shouted, striking a pose as Douglas crashed through a tree. "That's how we do it!"

Douglas chuckled as he stood up, his green eyes flashing blue for a moment. His chuckle turned into full-blown laughter, his head facing the sky as a bruise formed on his face. "You think your pets can stop us?!" Douglas hissed, his voice changing as he addressed Phoenix, becoming deeper and feral. "Brother! It's not over yet!" he screamed, blue light shrouding him as brown lines lit up on his sleeves and the legs of his pants. A thick blue line drove from his Aura, connecting him to the Grimm that he was raising out of the ground with his Earth Dust.

Sand flowed around him, soon followed by the rough stone that had been buried beneath it as he reach down with his Dust, raising a hollow he'd formed into the ground beneath them during the fight. A stone box slowly rose above the sand, settling to a halt once it was high enough for the beast it contained to step out. It did, its massive, trunk-like leg crushing the stone wall beneath it with careless ease as it raised its trunk and roared loudly enough to shake the ground beneath it.

"Damn it!" Angelica muttered, clenching her eyes shut; her Semblance was all she needed to see the elephantine Grimm lift itself out of the stone container. "Are you freaking kidding me?! A freaking Goliath!"

"Okay, we're retreating!" Rei exclaimed, glancing over her shoulder at the teenage students of Beacon Academy.

Phoenix gazed at the Goliath, his shoulders drooping as his spirits fell. The breeze that suddenly kicked up, slapping him across the face with the scent of salty seawater, roused him out of it and made him look out at the ocean. An idea popped in his head as he saw the seemingly endless expanse of water. "No," Phoenix said, turning back to face Rei, a Huntress he'd never met before, with confidence flowing from his eyes. "We're going to take down a Goliath."

"What?!" Rei shrieked, spinning on her heel to glare at him.

"Tell me," Phoenix said, smirking as he pointed a finger out at the ocean, "can a Goliath swim?"

Rei blinked, surprised, before chuckling and turning back to face Douglas, who was standing on top of the Grimm like he owned the world. "Probably not," Rei said, smirking at the older man.

"Distract Douglas for us, okay?" Phoenix asked, prompting a nod from Rei. "Okay then!" Phoenix exclaimed, glancing at his teammates. "Lata, grab it with your vines and throw it out to sea; Kai, reduce its weight; Angelica, when I say go, I want you to hit it as hard as you can!"

"What'll you be doing?" Lata asked, beginning to grow worried as Phoenix slung his ancestor's staff across his back and drew Scordatura.

"Something that'll make you hate me," Phoenix said, beginning to play his violin. Unlike almost every other time he'd played in the Bleeding Forest, Phoenix's song was full of energy and hope for the future, not a trace of the worry or sadness he used to feel being present; his Semblance seemed to reflect that in the shimmering red light that grew up around him and connected him to his friends. "Now, hurry up!"

"Got it!" Lata muttered, her face hardening with anger as she lashed out with her vines, wrapping them tightly around the Goliath's thick legs. The beast strained, but wasn't able to break free of Lata's Rally-enhanced Semblance. As she began to lift her arms, gritting her teeth with the effort of keeping her vines from falling apart under the Grimm's weight and its attempts to free itself, Kaimana's glove began to glow purple, wrapping the Goliath in a similar purple glow. The Grimm shot up into the air, Lata's vines holding it aloft much more easily.

"What?!" Douglas snarled, only to receive a burning fist to his stomach courtesy of Rei; he was knocked off of the Grimm's back and fell to the ground, but managed to flip in midair and land on his feet. Sand flowed around him as the Dust in his whips' handles began to glow, pulling his whip cords back into their homes, albeit with a bit of extra grit. Rei fell to the ground in front of him, slowing herself to a stop with the rear-mounted tubes of her Fett, and grinned at the older man.

Lata grunted with exertion as she willed her Gamble Vines to throw the Goliath, sending it sailing up into the air and towards the ocean. The massive Grimm roared as it was released, sending a shockwave of sound and compressed air at the team, only for it to be deflected by a blast of green lightning from the winded druid, small threads along her sleeves glowing yellow as she called on the Dust within them.

"Now, Angelica!" Phoenix shouted, beads of sweat beginning to appear on his face. He began to pant, his songs pace slowing down considerably as he felt his heartbeat begin to grow erratic and his lungs begin to cry for more oxygen.

"Got it!" Angelica yelled back, already jumping into the air and curling into a spin. The jet of flame from the rear-mounted barrel of her Demon was massive, searing the shoulder of her white coat black as it accelerated her spin and threw her at the airborne Goliath. As she got within a foot of the Grimm, she broke the sound barrier, causing a shockwave of air and sound to crash around her as she slammed her sword into the Goliath's side, scoring a thin gash into its hide and throwing it out over the ocean.

"Kai, shoot it!" Phoenix said as loudly as he could over his panting. Black dots were beginning to dance in front of his eyes, melding into the darkness creeping across his vision in a manner he found eerie.

Kaimana let go of the Grimm with his Gravity Dust, allowing Remnant's normal gravity to suck it down to the ocean a hundred feet away from the beach, and swung his cybernetic arm to face it, flipping his hand up on its hinge as he did. He took less than a second to aim before firing, the cryogenic grenade round flying out in an arc that managed to collide with the Goliath just before it hit the water. The explosion itself didn't affect the Grimm, and neither did the icicles; however, as the Goliath began to sink, a massive clump of water froze around the right side of its body, locking its legs into place and causing it to sink much more slowly.

"Good work... everyone," Phoenix muttered, falling to his knees and panting. In less than a second, Lata was at his side, tilting his head back and slowly pouring a trickle of the Aura regeneration potion into his mouth. He sputtered, almost spitting it out, but managed to swallow it without any going into his lungs. "Thanks," he said before Lata could feed him the rest of the potion, only for her to smack the top of his head with the canister. He let out a yelp of pain as she did it again, glaring at him.

"Idiot," Lata muttered, clasping a hand around his chin to force his mouth open. She continued pouring the potion into his mouth, but he didn't sputter this time. "We couldn't have done it without you," Lata mumbled, glaring at Phoenix past the tears welling up in her eyes.

Phoenix smiled at her, warmth shining in his eyes as he wrapped an arm around her. "Still, thank you," he said softly once he had swallowed the brew.

"Ahem!" Rei exclaimed, not even attempting to pretend to cough, as she dragged a thoroughly beaten Douglas over to the group, her jetpack now back in its normal state on her back. "I'm not interrupting something, am I?" she asked, smiling amicably at the young couple.

"How?" Douglas asked, his voice barely above a whisper. "How could you beat us? Two of you fools don't even have colored names!"

Lata stood up, her glare filling with hatred as she turned it on Douglas. She took a quick few steps over to him and slammed her fist into his stomach, making him collapse, coughing, to the ground. "Lata is Old Empyreal, the language of the Faunus," Lata spat at the old man. "It means 'Vine'."

"Kaimana means 'Diamond'," Kaimana growled, standing over Douglas imposingly. Douglas let out a panicked yelp when he saw the cyborg, having not heard his approach. "Or 'Power of the Sea'. Depends on the context."

Douglas chuckled, his eyes finally returning to their normal green. "I told you," Douglas mumbled, closing his eyes and curling up into a ball on the beach. "They're more than you thought."

"What?" Angelica asked, cocking an eyebrow as she watched her mental image of Douglas being calm and friendly under any situation crumble at the sight of the pitiful old man beneath her. "What was that?"

Douglas chuckled, shaking his head, but didn't say anything more.

Kaimana's eye flicked over to the ocean as he heard something, and he saw the ice that used to contain a Goliath bob up above the surface of the water. "We need to leave," Kaimana said, frowning at the ice.

"Got it," Rei said, nodding her head as she raised her Scroll to her mouth. "Yin, can you land so we can get in?"

"Say the magic word," Yin's voice came from the Scroll, making Rei sigh.

"Please?" Rei asked, her voice high and squeaky. Laughter came from the small speakers on the Scroll as the airship suddenly dropped nearly twenty feet, jerking out passed the treeline to avoid clipping its rotors on the branches of the ashen trees.

"Geez," Phoenix mumbled, standing up with Lata's help as they watched the airship descend. "Does she even have a license?"

Rei snorted off a laugh, smirking at Phoenix. "Yeah, but she only barely passed the test," Rei said, startling Phoenix. "What? She was one of my teammates when we were at Beacon. We still hang out."

"Huh," Phoenix grunted, looking at the Huntress. "Oh! Um, thanks for your help today, Miss... um... I don't think I caught your name," Phoenix mumbled, only now realizing that he had no idea who she was.

Rei chuckled, pulling Kaimana into a brief hug that made Angelica feel jealous. "The name's Rei," she said, reaching up with one hand to tousle the cyborg's hair; he only grimaced, not trying to stop her at all. "Mana here's my protege," Rei said, a grin stretching across her face as she heard Kaimana sigh.

Angelica blinked, surprised, at the revelation. "Oh, well, in that case," Angelica said, pulling Rei's arm off of Kaimana possessively, "I should introduce myself. Hi, I'm Angelica Farran, Kaimana's girlfriend."

"What?" Lata asked, her completely emotionless voice inspiring fear in her comrades. "Since when?"

"Um..." Angelica mumbled, sheepishly rubbing the back of her neck. "A couple days ago?"

"You..." Lata began, shaking with untold fury. "You freaking hypocrite!" Lata finally shouted, making Angelica flinch. "You kept making excuses about why I shouldn't ask out Phoenix until the ride back, yet you went right ahead and asked out Kaimana!"

"Lata," Phoenix said calmly, grabbing Lata's shoulder and squeezing firmly. "When's the last time you took your medicine?" the bard asked, making the druid blush nervously and poke her index fingers together.

"Ri-right," Lata mumbled, fishing around in her pouches for a canister of her self-made medicine.

Kaimana chuckled, drawing Phoenix's attention back to him. "Looks like that's your job now," the cyborg said, wrapping an arm over Angelica's shoulders. The angel sank into his grasp with a content sigh.

"Since when do you speak in complete sentences?" Rei asked, raising an eyebrow at Kaimana.

" _Oh for the love of..._ " Yin's voice came through both Rei's Scroll and the radio Lata wore on her hip, startling everyone on the beach. " _Get on already! I swear, if I have to wait another minute for you lot, I'm leaving!_ "

So, the team of Huntsmen-in-training piled into the airship, closely followed by the Huntress and Douglas. As the ship took off, the hum of its rotors becoming much louder as they churned the air much more intensely than before, the Goliath became visible beneath the seawater only twenty feet out from the inlet. Its truck raised above the water, and it let loose a trumpeting roar as the airship flew away.

With all the excitement, no one noticed Douglas's shadow grow just a little bit thinner.

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

[Airship _Sapphire 2_ , 200 miles south of Beacon Academy; 5:45 P.M.]

"So!" Phoenix exclaimed, holding an empty canister that used to hold the Aura restoring potion. "I think we should make an attempt to live up to our team name a bit more; you know bring more of a musical theme with us."

"Isn't that your job, Phoenix?" Lata asked, raising an eyebrow.

Angelica groaned, cradling her head in her hands. "I do _not_ like where this is headed," Angelica grumbled, glaring at Phoenix with one eye. "Seriously, I _really_ don't want to even listen to this idea."

"Oh come on," Phoenix said, pouting at Angelica. "You already know how to play a piano; how different could an accordion be?"

Lata burst into a fit of giggling, shaking her head as she leaned against Phoenix from her seat next to him. "I think she'd look a bit too silly with an accordion," Lata said, causing Angelica to grumble beneath her breath. "It'd probably clash horribly with that giant cross on her back."

"Hey!" Angelica exclaimed, turning her glare on Lata, who only giggled more. "Leave my Demon out of this! He never hurt you!"

"He?" Kaimana asked, making Angelica blush and lean away from him. "Should I be worried?" Kaimana asked, turning to Phoenix as Angelica only blushed harder and looked out the open side of the airship.

"Nah," Phoenix said, waving his hand dismissively as he chuckled. "She wants to settle down and have kids someday, so she won't marry her weapon or something silly like that. Probably," he added, drawing a chuckle from Kaimana as the taller man pulled Angelica closer to him.

"Phoenix!" Angelica squealed, uncharacteristically timid even as she relaxed into Kaimana's grasp. "Why'd you have to tell him that?!"

"Payback for telling them about how I first met Ruby," Phoenix said with a wink and a grin, making Angelica groan and cover her blushing face with her hands.

'Is this what having a team would be like?' Douglas thought glancing at the laughing teenagers from his seat. Manacles, made of a metal with the barest tint of green, sheathed his arms and legs, the steel chains holding them together keeping him from moving at all.

Rei sighed, shaking her head once she noticed Douglas looking at the team from Beacon again. "You aren't thinking about revenge," Rei noted, drawing Douglas's attention back to her. "I don't know what you are thinking about, though."

Douglas chuckled, leaning back against the wall behind him. "The things that led me here," Douglas said quietly, trying to not be overheard by Phoenix and his team. He closed his eyes and sighed, relishing the time he could spend without the darkest part of his self taunting him. "It seems he was wrong. I won't be the one to save the world."

"He?" Rei asked, leaning towards Douglas so that she could whisper. "Who is 'he'?"

"The Shade," Douglas said, an edge of fear growing in his voice; he was so lost in his tale that he didn't notice Rei stiffen at the term. "That's the name I gave to the darkness in my heart. He's been with me, guiding me, since I was little, always saying that I was destined to save the world from war. That I would be the one to put an end to the fighting." Douglas sighed again, sinking even lower in his chains. "I guess he was wrong. But the things I did to that end... I know there's no forgiving me. If dying is the best 'good' thing that I can do, then I won't stop you from executing me."

"Why would I do that?" Rei asked, cocking her head sideways.

"Didn't you know?" Douglas asked, blinking tiredly at the green-haired Huntress. "Since you're the Huntress who knocked the fight out of me, it becomes your job to carry out whatever the courts sentence me with."

Rei grimaced, shaking her head. "I ain't gonna do that," Rei said, startling the chained man. "I'm not gonna kill like that. Not you, not anyone; not unless I think they're evil enough that the world is better off without them."

"So you know the darkness of this world?" Douglas asked, a glint returning to his eyes. "You've seen the evil it holds?"

"Yeah," Rei whispered, her voice barely audible. "The Shade... I haven't heard that name in a long time, but I've heard of it. It's a fairy tale that my mother told me when I was a little girl." Rei shivered, turning her gaze away from Douglas. "About a ghost, a demon, a jester; every time she told it, the Shade was something else. At its core, the Shade was evil itself; it took over the darkness in our thoughts and brought them to life, creating the Grimm. It was the darkest thing in all of Remnant, but one day it just up and disappeared."

"Some say that it only left because of the chaos," Douglas muttered, continuing the tale. "That it did what it wanted to do and left, laughing at us all the while."

"If that story is true..." Rei muttered, shivering again. "I don't want to think about it."

Kaimana's eyes flicked over to his mentor as she and Douglas sat silently. He frowned, having heard every word they'd said and not understanding half of it. So, the cyborg did what he knew best; he kept silent, not even sighing, as he turned his attention back to his laughing comrades.

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

Fin~al~ly~! It's over! Now I don't have to stick to a rated T story anymore!

Before you go, there is one thing worth noting: the Shade. Consider it my last "guess" at what the future holds for RWBY. I mean, that's how these stories usually go, right? A world full of danger and adventure, chock full of mysteries and fairy tales that end up being true?

If you liked this story, but think that I should have gone darker with it, you might like my next story, which will be a Crossover between RWBY and Fallout. I'll be testing the boundaries of what's acceptable for an "M" rating on this site, though, so you might not enjoy it the same way. Oh, and keep an eye on my profile; we're probably not allowed to directly advertise things around here, so I'll be posting some information about some of my other work in there at some point.

Until next time, my fair companions!


End file.
